Scurrying behind storage containers and around walk-in freezers, the cockroach is a loathsome sight in any kitchen. Restaurant owners have been battling them for decades, and yet the bugs persist as their ancestors have for millions of years.
Annoying as cockroaches are, there are more serious foes on the minds of operators. Ask any of them, and they’ll tell you that E. coli and salmonella are some of the worst bugs of all.
The fight against pests and pathogens is a never-ending struggle in the restaurant industry, a war in which a lost battle can break a business in a single news cycle.
“Nineteen minutes,” says Steven Grover, the chief food safety officer for Miami-based Burger King. “In 19 minutes, [a foodborne illness] is worldwide news. That’s the speed of news and information.”
While the culprits behind foodborne illness are nothing new, the industry’s strategies for preventing and responding to food safety problems have evolved over the past 10 to 15 years, says David Theno, senior vice president and chief product safety officer for San Diego-based Jack in the Box. Multilevel product sampling, stronger partnerships with suppliers and more collaboration among operators are among the most significant advances in food safety, he says.
Theno was hired by Jack in the Box in 1993, not long after an E. coli outbreak linked to tainted burgers in some of the quick-service brand’s stores sickened hundreds and led to the deaths of several children. The incident severely damaged Jack in the Box’s reputation and cost the quick-service company millions.
Today, however, the company is known as a leader in food safety with a system that has garnered national recognition, Theno says. Lessons learned from the 1993 outbreak drove a number of changes in how Jack the Box and other chains ensure the safety of their products.
One of the biggest changes, Theno says, is the adoption of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-based food safety programs. After the E. coli outbreak, Jack in the Box also began testing beef at the supplier level, a practice that while virtually unheard of at the time has become the standard practice for ground beef, Theno says.
Working closely with suppliers of all products, from meat to produce, is another important development over the past 15 years, he says.
“In the old days, it was more of a price relationship, and food safety was a piece but not a driver in making decisions,” Theno says. “Today food safety is a joint responsibility between the supplier and the operator. You’re in it together, so you can agree to specifications so everyone is doing their part to make sure products are safe.”
Prevention at all stages, from where food originates to where it ends up, is the key in food safety, says Grover of Burger King.
“Food safety is dependent on a supply chain from our restaurants to the table,” he says. “We’re only as good as our weakest link. … We have very exacting specifications and we do multilevel testings. We test at our supplier, at our restaurants. We’re even testing on the farms that supply our system. Our system has become truly integrated.”
More collaboration also exists among the operators themselves. Conferences dedicated to food safety—such as the recent Food Safety Symposium sponsored by Ecolab Inc. and Nation’s Restaurant News—give restaurant companies the opportunity to share ideas and experiences. Food safety is simply not a matter of competition, Theno says.
“The understanding is that doing food safety well is good for everyone, and a food safety problem is bad for everyone,” he says.
Sharing insights with other operators and developing multilevel safety procedures at the supplier and restaurant levels have been critical to reducing foodborne illnesses, but the risk to restaurant companies is as high as ever, Grover says. Because of the rapid pace of information via the Internet and television, operators have to be prepared in the event of any food safety-related incident.
One of the most recent examples of the media’s efficiency in spreading information was the notorious video of rats frolicking in a franchised KFC-Taco Bell unit in New York City. Video of the restaurant’s infestation was widely circulated online and on television, becoming worldwide news in less than a day. In addition to the challenges it posed to franchisor Yum! Brands Inc., the incident embarrassed New York City’s health department, whose subsequent stepped-up health inspections closed dozens of restaurants temporarily.
“The risk of foodborne illness is declining to the consumer, but the risk to the business is growing,” BK’s Grover says. “You have to be prepared, but you have to have a good team ready to eliminate or mitigate further risk.”
Burger King’s food safety team includes around 25 staffers from virtually all aspects of the company, including media relations, legal, marketing, food safety and quality assurance. At the first sign of an incident that could be tied to the company, the team will assemble to identify the problem and prevent further risk. Grover notes that the company has full-time staffers who monitor food safety around the world to make sure Burger King’s products are safe.
At the Food Safety Symposium last year, Deborah Page, executive director of quality assurance and technical services for Applebee’s International Inc., described how the casual-dining operator had to act fast after a large-scale spinach recall in the fall of 2006, when the company had been set to promote a spinach salad developed by celebrity chef Tyler Florence. Page said a team composed of members from a variety of departments, from culinary to legal to communications, quickly developed a new salad made with arugula and reshot television ads with Florence. Page said at the symposium the incident proved the importance of communication and collaboration on the issue of food safety.
The bar for food safety will continue to rise, Theno says, and constant diligence is required from all operators to reduce as much as possible the risk of foodborne illnesses.
“A lot of the other things that you manage in a restaurant—food costs and labor—are all very interesting and if you don’t do them well you lose a little money,” Theno says. “But if you mess up in food safety, you bet your business.”
The task of ensuring safe products is an unending one, however, as the eradication of disease-causing pests, bacteria and viruses is a near impossibility.
Take the lowly cockroach again. Joe Kunkel, a professor in the biology department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, notes that the cockroaches found in many kitchens can starve for a month and require only the most meager of food, thereby making them extremely difficult to control and eradicate.
“They’ll be here when we’re gone,” he says.