Problems Working for Bakeries - Page 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annabakescakes 

Truthfully, it probably is fine to still eat it after it has been on the floor, if you are still going to cook it. Vegetables are grown right in the ground we just rinse them with water before eating raw, or before cooking. Actually, I am WAY more grossed out by the thought of eating dirty berries than properly cooked food that touched the floor while it was raw. I assume it would be rinsed first, and proper hair restraints are being used...

WHAT?  NO!  Not to get a preachy but...

The 5 second rule is completely false.  Countless studies have been done on it, I link you to Mythbusters, where they busted it completely:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/39535-mythbusters-five-second-rule-video.htm

So, if a piece of food grows a colony of bacteria in under 2 second exposure to the floor "too innumerable to count", then it is a contaminated piece of food and unsafe to eat.

Time temperature control only does so much - if the food item is contaminated it will still make people sick no matter how high you cook it, unless you cook food at at least 250F under a minimum pressure of 15psi. Heat alone does not kill bacteria, you need pressure, otherwise hospitals would just be deep frying or boiling their instruments!

OK, off my soap box now.  Love you Anna!

I don't want to get into an off topic debate, but having my manager's servsafe card, I have to post the facts as it applies to the food service industry - not per Google search.

Serving food that has been dropped on the floor is a HD violation.  It's against the American National Standards Institute and the Conference for Food Protection, which sets the national guidelines for HDs all over the country: contaminated food comes from biological, physical and chemical sources.  As a general rule, food that comes out of a package is safe assuming it was kept in time/temperature control and if you cook/cool it properly, but of you drop it on the floor it picks up biological contaminates like bacteria and mold, physical contaminates like broken glass and dirt, and chemical contaminates like 409 floor cleaner and pesticides.  Cooking it and selling it is not safe and I can't believe any HD would NOT issue a violation on it.

People that have taken a manager's ServSafe class have this drilled in.  

Now, if I'm home and my kid tosses her tots on the floor, yeah. I pick them up and put them back on the tray for her to eat.  I may even take a bite myself to show her how yummy it is.  The difference is... the risks I take at home with me and mine are completely different then the risks I take at work with you and yours.

But enough about that please!

LOL!

Since I wasn't clear, the unwashed strawberries were not ever cooked. Just sliced and put inside a cake or on top of a cake with a glaze. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. Oh, and there were the occasional unwashed chocolate dipped strawberries. If it makes anyone feel better, I heard that bakery manager has since died.  He was close to retirement age and I think no one wanted to fire him.

Edit: I mean "feel better" in the sense that the situation must surely be improved there. I know no one is wishing death on him :)
 

this unfortunately is a commonplace occurrence in many establishments serving fruit & fruit tarts especially because the crust/product sogs out if the fruit is damp/wet and the fruit also deteriorates faster--not saying it's right

That is very true Kate. They do get all squishy and runny, I do my dipped strawberries last minute.

FYI, for people who aren't sufficiently outraged by not washing produce, especially berries, Apples have pesticides sprayed on them, and fertilizers are but into the ground, but berries grow close to the ground, so the are sprayed directly with the fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Oh, and in many countries they use "human fertilizers" (as in human poop), and many of the farmers around here where it is frowned upon, still have workers who think nothing of it, laugh at our "silly uppity ways" and poop in the fields. But it could still be horse poop, or cow poop. And bird poop. 

Whether or not health regulations are enforced may depend on where you are, perhaps?  I'm just thinking...we were maybe inspected twice a year by the local health authority when I worked for Former Employer.  We always had advance notice, and we'd go into overdrive with the cleaning and such a few days beforehand.  We'd try our damndest to keep it that way after the inspection (which we always passed), but, as someone upthread said, a lot of places with production timetables will NOT give you the time to properly clean.  I've worked in some stores where there was literal mold growing on some of the muffin tins because they hadn't been properly washed/dried for lack of time

Where I work now, we have a company hygienic standard to maintain, so they build time for cleaning in with the production timetable.  We're inspected regularly by both the municipal health authority AND the company sanitation inspector, who will come in without warning at any given time.  Not all supermarkets do this, which baffles me to no end.  Maybe they don't have the budget nor the manpower nor...whatever?

location would def play in as well as each different type/class of establishment gets a certain number of inspections too

example--a mall baked goods store would be inspected once or twice a year--

if they pass--see yah next year

a full blown bakery or restaurant would be inspected more often, quarterly, maybe monthly, every six weeks

it's not a one size fits all

if it is a problem child they check more of course

not to mention as exampled up-thread it varies greatly from inspector to inspector even within the same jurisdiction

edited to fix typo

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgifford 

When my dh and I opened our restaurant we had an initial inspection from the HD. The inspector was telling us what was allowed and what wasn't, and I was sitting there with my head spinning.  One thing he told us was that as long as you were going to cook something, you could pick it up off the floor and not worry about it.  Really?  Gag.

 

The HD is a lot more worried about temperatures than any cleanliness issues. 

There is a rule on how many mouse droppings you have too, and how many roaches!  GROSS!  I dont have a bug, not even a ant in my shop.  We have our shop sprayed on a regular basis, (especailly to avoid the pizza shop two doors down..they are AWFUL!  They had ants crawling out of thier soda spots!)  It also shocked me how much you "Can get away with".  They were more hung up on if we had handcapped access in our bathroom...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sugarcheryl 

If you are looking to get paid top dollars and have all the benefits like corporate forget about it. The food industry is tough. You have got to LOVE what you do. Coming from the hair industry to baking and cake difference not a big difference. The pay is not high whether you work for someone or for yourself which then, if you think what you are experiencing is hard try running a business yourself.

Well Said!!

Running your own business you are lucky to get paid the first two years, much less Mim wage!