Wallin Foodservice Resources

The Keys to Safe Food Holding      To wrap up September, National Food Safety Month, we turn our attention to safe holding of both hot and cold foods. You’ve received, stored, and prepared food with great care. Often the last step before serving, holding is a time when the greatest risk to food is time and temperature abuse, while the risk of cross-contamination remains. From staging for pickup or delivery to hot serving wells and bulk food holding, an expansive variety of equipment has been developed to protect food safety and quality on its final journey from kitchen to table, so much so that an entire book could be written on the topic. Today, we’ll focus just on holding individual to-go and catering orders. Delivery and Takeout Order Holding There was once a time, not too long ago, that the industry standard was to place packaged to-go orders on a counter or bar for pick-up. Now, with increased off-premise business and the added need to support social distancing...

Tools and Equipment to Protect Food Safety During Prep For the third part of our food safety series, we will be looking at risky areas of prep that may be hiding in plain sight. As we’ve mentioned in prior posts, most foodborne illnesses are caused by one of the following three things: time and temperature abuse, poor personal hygiene, or cross-contamination.   Food is especially vulnerable to all these hazards during prep, since it is often exposed to ambient temperatures, other foods, human hands, and other potential contaminants. The good news is that a wide variety of prep tools and equipment were designed specifically to make the job of protecting food safety a lot easier. Here are a few of our favorites. Mercer Millenia ® Colors for Color-Coding and Allergen Management Valuable components of any HACCP system that are easy for employees to use, these essential prep tools sport color-coded handles for dedicated use applications such as produce, poultry, or meats, to reduc...

  Get Ready to Jazz up Your Tabletops and  Gear up Your Kitchen!  We’re stylin’ now! Wallin Foodservice Resources is pleased to announce the addition of leading brand TableCraft to our manufacturer portfolio. If you aren’t yet acquainted with TableCraft, we’d like to introduce you. This stylish brand can be found on tabletops and in kitchens worldwide, striking a balance between beauty and functionality with an extensive assortment of tabletop, beverage, buffet, catering, display, counter service, and bar supplies. And like the other manufacturers in our portfolio, TableCraft meets our high standards of safety, reliability, service, and quality. Always in step with our industry, TableCraft recently assembled a collection of tools to help foodservice operators adapt to the new landscape of foodservice, with products designed specifically to promote safety and hygiene. Hot well covers to temporarily re-tool buffet lines for pre-packaged single portions and safety shield...

Food Storage Safety Risks and Remedies Our last post reviewed safe receiving practices. The next step to safely shepherding food to the table is storage. Most foodborne illnesses are caused by one of the following three things: time and temperature abuse, poor personal hygiene, or cross-contamination. When it comes to food storage, cross-contamination is the most common culprit since food is all-too-often stored in a vulnerable manner. Risky Food Storage Practices Disposable coverings such as plastic film and aluminum foil are used extensively across the foodservice industry. They are inexpensive and convenient, but they pose some serious drawbacks that increase risk of cross-contamination and reduced shelf life. A single pan or container with a properly applied disposable cover typically doesn’t cause a problem until it’s accessed more than once, or it’s stacked on other pans or containers. Each time a disposable cover is lifted, pulled, or pushed back to access contents, its...

  Protecting Food Safety from the Point of Receiving September is National Food Safety Month, so we’re going to kick it off by taking a closer look at safe receiving practices. Our food is well traveled. From field to kitchen, with so many moving parts and points along the supply chain, food is vulnerable all the way to the table. Most foodborne illnesses are caused by one of the following three things: time and temperature abuse, poor personal hygiene, or cross-contamination. For any foodservice operator, unless you’re harvesting from your own garden, protecting against these potential hazards begins at the point of receiving. It looks like an innocent box, but as your mother might say, you never know where it’s been. Field, truck, warehouse, pallet, or floor are all among the possibilities. Insects are well known to hitch rides nestled in boxes of produce or inside tears in cardboard. Soil, absorbed liquids, and invisible microorganisms may be on the bottom of the carton where t...

  Choosing the Right Handwashing Station for the Job From CDC and healthcare professional guidance to how-to videos like Gloria Gaynor’s pandemic version of her classic I Will Survive, we have all been trained that handwashing is more critical than ever during this unprecedented time. Not only does it protect each of us and those with whom we interact, but clearly visible and accessible handwashing stations now provide a sense of reassurance to employees and customers alike. Supplemental handwash stations come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and levels of portability. Where the station will be used, access to electricity, water capacity, and available space are important factors to consider when it comes to choosing the best one for the job.   Handwashing for Curbside, Drive-Through, or Outdoor Events It’s tempting to resort to hand sanitizer when working outdoors, but soap and warm water have been proven more effective because they physically remove germs from hands. A...

  Stepping Up Drive-through Staff and Customer Safety   In our last post, we talked about the organization and temperature maintenance aspects of to-go operations. What about drive-through? Organization is also key to supporting drive-through traffic, especially now that it’s at an all-time high. And although person-to-person contact is minimal due to the nature of drive-through, the need for enhanced safety protocol is essential. It may seem intimidating, but simple steps will go a long way.   Handwashing Providing employees with accessible, properly equipped handwashing stations is of paramount importance to protect staff and customers alike, wherever they interact. Staff who work outdoors as part of the drive-through or curbside team will likely need access to a supplemental outdoor station. In April, Chick-fil-A led the way in best practices when they announced they had begun a national roll-out providing outdoor handwashing stations, made by Cambro, for th...