School Foodservice Recipes

From A HACCP Perspective

If we can agree on several recipe facts concerning food safety, my perspective will be easier to swallow.

  • The recipe, like the production report, is a tool and our training teaches us that using the right tool makes the task at hand considerably easier. As an example we would never stir the contents of a steam kettle with a serving spoon, but use a paddle, because it’s the correct tool for the task and will do an acceptable job.

  • The challenge of providing food safety assurances in our recipes makes subjective recipe statements "outdated". So there is no longer a place in school foodservice recipes for phrases like ‘cook until bubbly’, ‘golden brown’, or ‘cook until done’ as these terms are subjective and cannot be measured to conform to HACCP compliance.

  • Properly formatted, the HACCP Compliant recipe contains statements that are reminders of a specific action to take and seeing these statements over a period of time is a "learning tool" that eventually becomes a part of production rather then an isolated procedure.

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    So armed with those three statements as a major premise, lets explore the recipe as a food safety tool, as well as providing direction as to amounts, techniques, flavor profile, and presentation.

    All of us, who are in food service, whether we realize it or not, use action responses based on our own experience/knowledge database. An example of that would be a bubbling steam kettle of stew cooking for lunch. If we observed that and no one was around our response mechanism would prompt us to grab the paddle and stir the stew, because our triggered response based on our experience would kick in.

    What if the recipe, as we see it each time we used it, had food safety reminders at the proper juncture of the recipe? This might be wash hands, take temperature, corrective action, log temperature, etc.

    If these appear, then the HACCP Compliant recipe becomes a learning tool in addition to providing assurances. So what initially were isolated procedures to provide compliance with code becomes part of production.

    So now faced with the steam kettle of bubbling stew, the school foodservice staff member has an expanded response mechanism. They stir the stew, take a temperature, record it on a log, but more importantly they did this from a more professional perspective, with an elevated self esteem and an unprecedented excitement about their job.

    All of us involved in training realize that it equates to development, personal growth, and a process. We require our staff to attend food safety training. Our success depends in part on their attention span, motivation, and our ability as trainers to access their long term memory. We teach the importance of personal hygiene, taking temperatures, corrective action, and record keeping, but in the final analysis it all comes down to will they actually remember?

    The HACCP Compliant recipe releases you from that burden at least and is a tool working for you each time the staff uses a recipe. The reminders are there, which act as an on going follow up.

    So it provides the assurances needed, is an active learning tool, provides a reasonable care posture for the district, and allows the Director and Manager to focus on other important responsibilities, such as administrative and record keeping.