FOOD AND SAFETY PRACTICES

@ THE “CLASSIC SAVORY” RESTAURANT

SM CITY NAGA BRANCH

By: Alexis D. Organis

CTH Diploma in Professional Cookery Level-3 (Batch-4)
CTH # 94374
August 2019

The intent of this assignment is to discuss the actual application of food and safety
practices in the restaurant. It aims to give the culinary students the proper knowledge of how
to apply the food and safety practices in the restaurant from the receipt of goods up to the
storage, preparation, cooking process, and serving of food. Food and safety practices in
proper sanitation of kitchen equipment and kitchen utensils. Standard storage and holding
temperatures to control the spread of bacteria, molds, viruses, and spoilage of foods.

This assignment will determine everything that the restaurant management is doing
and those things they don’t do regarding the food and safety standards. Under certain rules
and regulations of the government or state, they consider it as the legal standards, wherein
the restaurant management must obey those certain rules. I did the interview in the full
operation process of the restaurant that would give good ideas to benefit culinary students
and their future careers.

It is a very important part for the culinary student to practice their abilities in
assessing if the restaurant management complies with the standard rules of the food and
safety practices. This will show the actual process in the restaurant, and to help them gain
more ideas and knowledge about culinary standards and importance of food and safety
practices in their culinary careers.
 This is all about the theories and principles that are applied, based on the actual
working environment being observed in the restaurant, and based on the existing Rules and
regulation, mandated by the national constitution, under “FOOD SAFETY ACT OF 2013”.
Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Republic Act No. 10611, February 20, 2015.
The implementing rules and regulations of REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10611, “An act to
strengthen the food safety regulatory system in the country to protect consumer health and
facilitate market access of local food products, and for other purposes” otherwise known as
the “FOOD SAFETY ACT OF 2013.” Official Gazzette (2015) ‘Implementing Rules and
Regulations of Republic Act No. 10611’ Available from:
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2015/02/20/implementing-rules-and-regulations-of-
republic-act-no-10611/ [Accessed 7 August 2019].

According to the Mr. Edward Rodriguez, branch manager of the CLASSIC SAVORY
RESTAURANT, The Ting family started a restaurant business back in the 1950s called
SAVORY RESTAURANT. There were four brothers in the family who spared the business
into four different savory-based names of their restaurants. One of the four brothers is Mr.
Ramon C. Ting the present owner of the Classic Savory Restaurant in the Philippines. The
ClASSIC SAVORY opened last August 17, 2007 and As of now, the restaurant has 115
branches in the entire country. They gain a lot of customer because of the quality food,
safety of food, and customer service.

The restaurant serves a combination of Filipino and Chinese inspired dishes. They
serve all the foods as ordered within 10 to 15 minutes time, from the food preparation
until they served t to the customer. The motivation of the restaurant management and branch
manager of the restaurant, Mr. Edward Rodriguez is to promote good and safe food with
quality service to the customers. The restaurant management’s vision is to give high values
to food and safety practices in their food service. This was the key instrument of the
restaurant that gained the trust and confidence of the customers to their food services. The
customers choose the restaurant as their home of quality and safe food to eat. It all starts
with the proper hygiene and cleanliness of the kitchen staff and good sanitation.
 According to the restaurant manager, they are very strict in implementing proper
hygiene and cleanliness in the restaurant from the kitchen up to the dining area. This setup
gives a very nice impression to the customers, as it gives a cozy atmosphere for them to
spend time on their meals. It also gives the customer the confidence to eat and enjoy the
tasty and savory foods in the restaurant. The management requires all the food handlers in
the restaurant to wash their hands before the start of their duty in the kitchen and dining.
They also require food handlers to wear complete uniform, vinyl gloves, hairnets, and caps
to ensure food safety and avoid cross-contamination.

Foodborne illness is caused by contaminated foods which are consumed. These

contamination is due to the presence of harmful bacteria in wherein it is very dangerous for
consumption. That was mostly the foods that contain harmful bacteria, viruses, and harmful
chemicals. Restaurant management does not allow employees to work if they are coughing,
sneezing, or if they are sick. CDC (2004) ‘Diagnosis and Management of Foodborne
Illnesses’ Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5304a1.htm
[Accessed 7 august 2019].

The bacterial infection from a sick person is contagious and might infect other
people in the restaurant. The spread of bacteria might transfer easily into the air, and bacteria
can multiply, this may infect the other employees and even the customers inside the
restaurant. All the restaurant staff has an updated food handlers Certificate and Yellow Card,
Issued by the City Health Office in Naga as the basic requirement of all food handlers, to
ensure that everybody working in the restaurant are fit to work in the food-service industry.
Restaurant management ensures that they comply with the city health ordinance.
Naga.gov.ph ORDINANCE NO. 2005-077 Available from: http://naga.gov.ph/wp-
content/uploads/2011/01/ord2005-077.pdf [Accessed 7 August 2019].

For the chopping boards, they use the color-coding method as part of their food and
safety practices. They do this to ensure food safety and avoid cross-contamination to the
food they prepare. The green chopping board is for vegetables, salads, and fruits; red
chopping board color is for raw meat, blue chopping board color is for fish and seafood,
yellow chopping board is for raw poultry, brown chopping board is for cooked meats, and
the white chopping board is for bread, pastries, and Dairy. They also ensure cleanliness in
the kitchen and in the dining area to avoid hazards inside the premises of the restaurant.
 The manager schedules the employees into two shifting sequences based on the
company standard operating procedures. There are opening and closing shifts. As per the
standard guidelines implemented by the restaurant management. They have guidelines in
proper turnover of duties to the new shifting restaurant staff. They also have a logbook in
proper turnover of work and duties. The benefits of that setup are to organize the flow of
work, ensure safety, avoid interruption and mistakes to the restaurant restaurant staff.

The floors are maintained oil-free to avoid slips and accidents inside the kitchen and
all over the dining area. They clean gas range hood filters and oil traps every day before
closing time. As part of the cleaning and sanitizing of their kitchen tools and utensils, they
use the three-compartment sink; the wash sink, the rinse sink, and the sanitize sink. The
process they use to sanitize kitchen utensils is sterilizing, wherein the kitchen utensils are
submerged in hot water. The spoons, fork, and knives are in a separate cup of hot water in
the service area for the customer as part of the sanitation in the dining area.

According to the restaurant manager, they have guidelines in food safety. From the
receipt of goods, they assure that all the goods being delivered to them are properly recorded
in the restaurant food logbook. They label all the newly delivered goods with the date in
each of the food before storing. They also include the name of suppliers of the goods in each
label for documentation purpose. They do documentation to know and assess which of them
are the better food suppliers to their restaurant. From that process they determine from
which company they will continue to order good food supplies. As they receive and record
the food supplies, they clean and wash those goods that need washing before storing. They
do this method to reduce the spread of bacteria and prolong the spoilage of food. They
ensure that all the goods are labeled with the date it was delivered to them, and the date they
have stored it to ensure that they will not prepare an expired food. In storing of food, all the
raw food are on the lower part of the storage. All the prepared and cooked foods are always
above or on the top of the food rack. This is to avoid cross-contamination of those prepared
and cooked food.

According to the restaurant manager, they also have a fire and safety practices
guidelines in the restaurant. They conduct fire and safety induction to all the restaurant staff
as a requirement before they work in the restaurant. They also give evaluation to the
restaurant staff after the safety induction, and they issue safety induction certificates to those
who pass the evaluation process. This is to assess and ensure that the level of fire safety
awareness of the restaurant staff passed the safety standards of the company. This will
benefit the company to avoid fire hazards and accidents. In addition they have a fire action
plan per mall management operation to prepare for the worst case scenarios, as the restaurant
is inside the mall.
 Because they are under the mall management rules, they are very cautious when it
comes to safety standards and awareness. They equiped their range hoods with a fire
suppression system; which is an automatic and manually operated fire suppression system
with filters and oil traps. In the kitchen, there are fire blankets for emergency purposes
in small fire incidents, especially the small fire in the cooking range. All of that was the fire
and safety requirement of the Bureau of Fire Protection in the Philippines and also for the
mall management in compliance to fire and safety rules. Official Gazzette (2008) ‘Fire
safety for businesses and other establishments’ Available from:
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/laginghanda/fire-safety/for-businesses/ [Accessed 7
August 2019].

We must consider monitoring compliance with the existing rules of government law;
because everybody needs to be familiar with the government rules and regulations in the
food-service industry to avoid legal action from the government authorities. Fines and
penalties are imposed on those who violate the existing laws. To monitor compliance with
legislation, we must educate everybody with the basic laws that cover the field of a subject
to those who are involved. Ignorance of the law excuses no one, that’s why we need to know
the existing laws, especially in the field that involves us. We must make sure we are not
beyond or above the law to avoid consequences for the violation we might have. We must
have a copy of government rules and regulations as our guidelines to assure monitoring if
we are not violating the law. It is much better to have an idea and guidelines to monitor
legislation compliance in the field they involve us. In the food industry, it is better to educate
and give a copy of the rules and regulations to all the food handlers as a guideline to monitor
the compliance in their field of work. To avoid violating the government rules, we must
familiarize and monitor our compliance with the rules and with the guidelines. WIKIPEDIA
(2012) ‘Ignorantia juris non excusat’. Available from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat [Accessed 7 August 2019].
 According to the restaurant manager, ensuring safety in food preparation needs a
programmed plan to achieve an organized safe kitchen and safe food. Personal discipline
and hygienic practices must be observed in the food preparation. The basics of achieving
safety in preparing foods are;

 Cleanliness in work-place and proper hygiene.

 Wash hands with soap before working in the kitchen.
 Wear hairnets, nails must be trimmed.
 Wear gloves when handling raw food.
 Always wash your hands in the transition of food handling to avoid cross-
contamination.
 Do not hold cooked foods with your bare hands.
 Wear the proper and required uniform. Always sanitize the kitchen equipment and
kitchen utensils after washing to assure food safety has taken place.
 Do not allow sick employees to work and handle foods.

According to the restaurant manager, food must be safe for consumption and the
proper handling of food has to take place. They have a planned guideline for the proper
setup to ensure safety in the service of food. For him he understands that the service of food
is a very important part of the restaurant. This is the time that the prepared food has to be
consumed within the safe time frame of holding the food. Good sanitation in dining
and kitchen utensils is also very important factor in restaurant service. Proper hygiene of
food servers is a must because food servers will be the one to serve the food, and they will
be the one to communicate with the customers about their food orders. Their mistakes would
result in a bad reputation for the restaurant. Food servers must have good communication
skills to communicate properly with the customers.

To ensure food safety in the storage of food, they must maintain their planned
standard operating procedures. First is having a logbook on all goods that are to be stored, to
the storage temperatures that must be at the standard storage temperatures, and to ensure that
they are out of the danger zone. It is very important to organize food storage depending on
the food to be stored in the storage. Raw foods must always be stored down at the bottom of
the storage rack, while cooked foods must always be stored at the upper part of the storage
rack. It’s better to put a label to organize the storage of food. We must store cold foods at
4°C (39°F) or colder. We must store frozen foods at −18°C or lower. We must do proper care
and regular cleaning to maintain food storage and maintain safe food. (FIFO) First In First
Out method. FDA (2018) ‘Are You Storing Food Safely?’ Available from:
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/are-you-storing-food-safely [Accessed 7
August 2019].
 The potential effects of non-compliance on food and safety practices are hazardous
Temperature within (5° C to 60° C) that stay for a long period might cause food poisoning
because of the spread of bacteria in the food. Non-compliance with proper sanitation might
cause cross-contamination to foods. The food-service equipment and the cooked foods are
the main subjects of cross-contamination. Using knives, chopping boards, spoons, and
plates, without washing in the transition of use, might cause cross-contamination. We use it
from raw meats to cooked foods. Hands that have been in contact with hazardous food
without washing can cause cross-contamination that will cause food-borne illness to the
person who eats contaminated foods. FDA (2014) ‘HACCP Principles & Application
Guidelines’ Available from: https://www.fda.gov/food/hazard-analysis-critical-control-point-
haccp/haccp-principles-application-guidelines#app-h [Accessed 15 August 2019].

The “Food Safety Management System”, In-here, the application of Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point (HACCP) is the most important factor that has to be considered. A
range of safety that needs to be applied as part of food management systems. The safety
measures that need to be done from purchase, delivery, storage and to the service of food.
Purchased goods need to be checked and receipted. We classify the goods that are to be
stored into three, the dry goods that need to be stored, the goods that need to be chilled, and
the goods that need to be in the freezer. In storing those goods, proper management has to
take place. There must be a storage guidelines chart and storage log book to have a proper
audit of stored goods. When you store goods, you must have to know what can go wrong.
What action has to be taken to reduce or get rid of the hazards. What are the control
measures. Procedures of proper checking and documentation. What shall we do if the
control measures fail. or what if they do not meet if the critical limits. The next step as a part
of Food Safety Management System is the Preparation, Cooking, Serving, and Reheating
flow charts. Flow charts and monitoring logbooks are very important in food safety
management. From here, you will determine what is met and what is not met by the
restaurant. From here you will know what plans you need to do. The next step is the house
rules chart monitoring system. Cross-contamination house rules, Stock control house rules,
Personal Hygiene House Rules, Temperature controls house rules, Safe use of eggs house
rules, Training house rules, Pest control house rules, complaints. Hampshire County Council
(2014) FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Available from:
http://documents.hants.gov.uk/adultservices/Procedures/FoodSafetyManagementSystem.pdf
[Accessed 7 August 2019].
 CONCLUSION

I therefore conclude that the food and safety practices is the first and most important
part of the food industry to ensure the high quality food to consume. Compliance with the
proven safety standards and the existing rules and regulations in food handling is a must to
avoid legal action from regulating authorities, and to have a safe and successful business.
Based on my research as a culinary arts student I’ve learned the contrast on the theories of
safety standards discussed in our school and the actual application in the restaurant where I
did my research. From these research I’ve seen how they comply with the existing rules and
regulations. I’ve seen what is done in the right way, and what is sub-standard. What matters
most is how eager the restaurant management tries their best to cope up with the local and
international standard on food and safety practices. It’s because it benefits both the
customers and the restaurant.