Health Inspector Secrets, Pt. 1: Brick and Mortar

As told by a veteran health inspector with 15 years of experience evaluating food service establishments

I've been doing this job for about 15 years now and let me tell you, I've walked into some real disasters. Fast casual places are actually some of the trickiest ones to inspect because they think there doing everything right with their open kitchens and fresh ingredients, but man do they mess up the basics alot.

The thing about fast casual is everybody's in a hurry - customers want their food fast, employees are rushing around trying to keep up, and management is focused on speed and sales instead of safety half the time. I get it, business is tough, but some of these mistakes I see over and over again could literally kill someone or shut you down for good.

So here's the top 5 things I write violations for most often, and trust me when I say if you fix these you are going to save yourself alot of headaches and money.

1. Temperature Problems - This One Drives Me Crazy

Ok so this is the big one, the one that makes me lose sleep at night because it's so dangerous and so common. You're supposed to keep cold food cold. Period. Like under 40 degrees. Vice versa, hot food should be hot. At a minimum, over 135 degrees. Higher with certain ingredients. But I walk into these places and find chicken sitting at 48 degrees in the cold well, or soup that's been sitting on the soup cauldron at 120 degrees for who knows how long.

Just last week I was at this bowl place that's pretty popular around here and their chicken was sitting at 43 degrees. The manager kept arguing with me saying "but it feels cold!" Like seriously? That's not how bacteria works my friend.

The problem is these fast casual places have all this equipment that gets opened constantly - cold wells, steam tables, those refrigerated display cases. Every time you open that lid or door, the temperature changes, and most operators don't realize how fast things can get dangerous. Plus half of them don't even own a separate thermometer, they just trust whatever the equipment display says.

Here's what you need to do: get yourself some good probe thermometers (not the cheap ones from the restaurant supply store that are always wrong) and actually use them. Check your temps every 2 hours minimum and write it down somewhere. Keep a temperature log. I will ask to see it. It isn't mandatory but it gives me a clue as to what kind of operator you are. If you don't keep a temp log, we're in for a looooonng day. Train your people to know when something's not right - if your cold well usually runs at 38 and now its reading 40, you might be technically ok but there's something going on and that's a problem. And for the love of all that's holy, if your equipment can't keep up during busy times, you need better equipment or you need to change how you do things. There's these new systems that monitor temperatures remotely and send alerts to your phone, might want to look into that if you got the budget.

2. Cross Contamination - The Assembly Line Nightmare

This one makes me want to pull my hair out because it's so preventable but happens constantly. You got raw chicken juice getting on lettuce, same cutting board being used for raw meat and vegetables, employees using the same tongs for everything. It's like watching a disaster movie in slow motion.

Worst one I ever saw was this Mediterranean place where they were using the same meat slicer for raw lamb and then slicing tomatoes right after without cleaning it.

The thing about fast casual is everything's happening fast and in front of customers, so employees take shortcuts. They'll use whatever utensil is closest instead of getting the right one, or they don't want to slow down the line to wash their hands and change gloves properly. Management puts all this pressure on speed but doesn't train people properly on food safety.

Solution is pretty simple but you gotta stick to it: color code everything. Change out utensils. Often. Red cutting boards for meat, green for vegetables, blue for seafood, whatever system works for you. Different colored tongs, different aprons if you want to get fancy. Make it impossible for your people to mess up even when there rushing. Put up signs, create physical barriers between raw and ready-to-eat areas, and maybe assign specific people to handle only raw stuff or only ready-to-eat during busy times. And if you're dishwasher isn't constantly working and on his or her phone, you have got a cleanliness problem.

3. Hand Washing and Glove Issues - Basic Stuff Gone Wrong

You'd think after everything that's happened in the past few years people would be better at this but nope, still one of my biggest violation categories. Employees changing gloves without washing there hands first, wearing the same pair of gloves for way too long, handling money then touching food, touching there face or hair then going right back to food prep.

The absolute worst was this one place where I watched an employee handle raw ground beef, wipe his hands on his apron, and then start making a salad. No hand washing, no new gloves, just a wipe on a dirty apron. I shut them down on the spot.

Problem is usually poor training or hand sinks that are hard to get to. Some places try to save money on gloves so employees reuse them way longer than they should. And when your slammed with customers, washing hands feels like it takes forever even though it's only 20 seconds.

You need hand sinks that are easy to reach and always stocked with soap and towels. Train your people that gloves aren't magic - you still gotta wash your hands before putting them on and you gotta change them between different tasks. Maybe look into those touchless faucets and soap dispensers if you can afford it, removes one more excuse for people not to wash properly.

4. Food Storage and Dating - The Stuff You Can't See

Walk into most fast casual walk-in coolers and it looks like someone threw food in there with a catapult. Stuff sitting on the floor, no labels on anything, raw meat stored above ready-to-eat foods, things that have been sitting there for god knows how long with no dates.

Had this smoothie place where I found fruit purees that the manager admitted might of been made over a week ago but nobody wrote any dates on them. What am I supposed to do with that? Had to make them throw everything out just to be safe.

The problem is these places do alot of prep work and they got limited storage space, so everything gets crammed in wherever it fits. High turnover means new employees don't know the system, and when your busy proper storage seems less important than just getting food out the door.

You gotta have a system and stick to it. First in first out, everything labeled with prep date and throw out date. Use those dissolving labels if you got them. Raw meat always goes on the bottom shelf, ready-to-eat on top, everything covered. Do a walk-in audit every day and assign someone to keep it organized. It's boring work but it's important.

5. Cleaning and Sanitizing - The Thing Nobody Wants to Do

Last but definitely not least, cleaning problems. These fast casual places have all kinds of equipment - slicers, blenders, complex prep machines - and most of them don't get cleaned properly. Either the sanitizer solution is too weak, too strong, or there using dirty rags to "clean" stuff.

Biggest mistake I see is people thinking sanitizer wipes fix everything. News flash: sanitizer only works on clean surfaces. If you got grease and food particles all over something, wiping it with a sanitizer wipe doesn't do anything except spread the dirt around.

Equipment intimidates people so they don't break it down properly for cleaning. Closing time comes and everybody wants to go home so they take shortcuts. Management doesn't understand the difference between cleaning (getting the dirt off) and sanitizing (killing the germs).

Make detailed cleaning procedures for every piece of equipment and train everybody on them. Use test strips to make sure your sanitizer is the right strength. Clean first, then sanitize. Don't let people rush through closing procedures. Maybe hire someone specifically to handle the complex equipment cleaning if you can afford it.

Bottom Line - This Stuff Matters

Look, I don't write violations because I like ruining people's day. I do it because one bad meal can put someone in the hospital or worse. These aren't just rules somebody made up to annoy you, there based on real science and real incidents where people got hurt.

The restaurants that do well are the ones that treat food safety like it matters as much as customer service or food quality. Because honestly, none of the other stuff matters if you make your customers sick.

Next time I'm gonna talk about food trucks and all the special problems they have. Till then, take a good hard look at your operation and fix these issues before I have to come back and write you up for them.

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