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QUALITY IMPROVEMENT


Food Safety and Worker Training: A Strategic Imperative


By Karen Purze F


ood service operations in senior living communities are increasing- ly getting attention as a source of


competitive advantage. David Koelling, president of Strategic Dining Services, a dining service and hospitality management provider, knows the strategic importance of the dining operation. “For many operators, dining is the number one controllable ex- pense, and the biggest driver of resident sat- isfaction. Increasingly, hospitality is what we do. Dining and hospitality needs to be part of the vision. It needs to match, fit, and in some cases lead an organization’s strategy,” he said. That strategy includes safety—food safety and worker safety in the kitchen.


Fresh food is safe food At Market Street Memory Care Residences, a Watercrest Senior Living community in Viera, Fla., menu design goes beyond hav- ing a tailored, nutritionally-balanced, and dietary-compliant menu creation process. The community offers a mostly Mediterra- nean diet, with a lot of fresh fish, chicken, and turkey. “Our freezers are really small,” said executive chef Ryan Gorsuch. High quality, fresh food improves the dining experience—and it’s also easier to manage from a food safety perspective. In fact, Koelling makes a direct connec- tion between quality ingredients and safe food handling. “When you have quality food, you handle it differently. You store it differently. You hold it for the shortest time possible. If you’re committed to fresh, great food, the handling looks very different—and so do the outcomes. Ninety percent of san- itation and health issues go away if you’re committed to quality food.” While senior living communities are bound by the same laws and regulations that


46 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2018


Image courtesy of ServeSafe®


apply to restaurants, there are some special considerations that make it necessary to “take it up a notch above what you might see in a restaurant,” said Lynne Eddy, an associate professor of business management at The Culinary Institute of America. Eddy teaches students in her senior-level courses on human resource management and food- service management in health care (see p. 38) to combine expert level culinary skills with the technical knowledge and cultural sensitivities they need in a health care or senior living setting.


Special safety considerations for senior living Eddy reminds students that seniors may have compromised immune systems; this


means kitchen and dining areas must be extra clean, and special attention must be paid to food temperatures and food storage. “Food poisoning can be devastating [in this population],” said Eddy. William Weichelt, director of food safe-


ty and industry relations at the National Restaurant Association (NRA) agreed. “This is more of an at-risk population; you want to make sure things aren’t under- cooked, and that there are processes in place for monitoring [food temperatures].” Special dietary requirements may also


factor in to food safety in a senior living or health care setting. Gorsuch, who had extensive experience in restaurants, hotels, and country clubs prior to joining Market Street, needed onsite training in some of


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