New Training Teaches Food Handlers Basic Safety Practices

John Marcy recently walked into a fine Virginia restaurant and was appalled to find something besides Monet and red leather in the decor.

Hanging just feet from booths where patrons partook of their haute cuisine were several dozen "no-pest" strips.

"It's hard to believe that the restaurant personnel didn't realize that those strips give off neuro-toxins," says the Virginia Cooperative Extension food scientist. "They're illegal in food service establishments."

Americans are more concerned than ever about food purity and safety, but few of us question the quality of the food we eat in such restaurants.

"We have very high expectations when we go out to eat," says Marcy, a faculty member at Virginia Tech. "At the very least, we expect that we're not going to get sick."

Yet 77 percent of the 9 million reported food-borne illness incidents every year can be attributed to food service - everything from four-star restaurants to workplace cafeterias to convenience store delis.

In another, more serious case a couple of years ago, more than 100 people contracted hepatitis A after eating at a Virginia Beach restaurant where a worker with the disease failed to wash his hands properly.

On a typical day, nearly 50 percent of adults purchase a meal or snack from the food service industry, according to the National Restaurant Association, meaning there are few of us who shouldn't be concerned about such risks. Marcy is certainly concerned.

Fortunately, Marcy and other Extension and state Health Department officials who share his concern are taking the first steps in training all food service managers in basic food handling safety.

There are no statewide food safety training requirements for such personnel, although six localities (Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Virginia Beach, Hampton and Chesapeake) require managers to take a course on the topic.

The course is often offered at community colleges in those areas over a semester session.

Extension, however, is making safe food handling training available to other areas of the state, and aims to offer it at more convenient times for restaurant and other food service managers, Marcy says.

"It just makes good business sense to have people trained in safe food handling in restaurants," says Mike Evans, Extension hotel and restaurant management specialist at Virginia Tech. "Prevention is much less costly than the public relations and legal costs of defending a law suit."

Students going through Virginia Tech's hotel and restaurant management program receive such training as part of their academic requirements.

But professional food service managers aren't necessarily graduates of programs like Tech's.

And even if they are trained, the turnover rate in food service is so high that after a few years, managers take their knowledge elsewhere, leaving new employees without the benefit of their expertise.

Two states require all food service managers to be well-versed in basic safe food handling, Benko says.

Florida's law, effective October 1988, requires restaurant managers to pass a certification exam designed by a private national assessment company, according to Robert Nelson of the Florida Restaurant Association.

The exam is designed so that a manager can take it after independently going through a workbook, he says, but no one has actually taken the test yet. State government is still waiting for its production.

"The law was designated to increase the professionalism of the industry as well as to boost public perception of the sanitation standards in restaurants," Nelson says. And certainly that perception is important in a state that hosts millions of tourists every year, practically all of whom will eat in restaurants during their visit.

Food scientist Marcy says he expects Virginia is moving toward some mandatory requirements for its food service managers, but he's not going to make a guess about how long it will be before that comes about.

A resolution to study the need for mandatory training was defeated in committee during the past General Assembly session.

But Marcy says he's glad there's time to get a vountary system in place.

The interim gives Extension a chance to put together a premium program, and like Evans, Marcy thinks food service managers should realize that acquiring such training is simply a good investment.

"I'm not saying that if they don't do this, they're going to go out of business, but overall it's good management to limit liability and risk," he says. "If they learn about safe food handling and take just a little time to train their people, it will cut their liability risk - as well as food safety risks for those they serve - dramatically."

Additional safe food handling training courses for food service managers are planned for the Pittsylvania County area and for Petersburg. For more information, contact John Marcy, Extension food scientist, Virginia Tech, 231-5058.