With the National Restaurant Association declaring September as the month to concentrate on food safety, it is critical that this becomes a better managed, ongoing effort on everyone’s part. For the 15th annual National Food Safety Education Month, the slogan is  for operators of foodservice establishments to do proper training for all employees. They are encouraged to offer mini-sessions daily to make certain every staff member understands the importance of his mission.

Safety starts with hands, clean hands, and most often, gloved hands. Yet those same employees cannot handle money one minute and with the same gloves, cut the next guy’s sandwich. It’s all about training and diligence. Stopping infection remains a primary goal. All surfaces need to be clean, spotlessly clean, and all food handlers need to remain vigilant about their own personal hygiene.

If you want to understand a restaurant or foodservice’s commitment to food safety, then visit the establishment’s rest room. If it is a mess, sure, tell someone who is supposed to be monitoring it, but recognize that this may be an indication of the business’s overall commitment to sanitation.

Just this past week, the USDA with HHS consolidated its efforts to inform consumers about food recalls and food safety issues. The Administration has been determined to streamline and make information easily accessible while having agencies concentrate on how they can make food safety a primary concern. This site enables the consumer to sign up for alerts as they happen. The slogan that needs to be followed in a restaurant and at home is to “Clean, Separate (don’t cross-contaminate), Cook (to proper temperature), and Chill (refrigerate properly).” No food group appears immune from safety concerns as this has been a terrifying year in terms of basic, so-called ordinary recalls, peanut butter , for example. The crisis in food safety has gone far beyond farm fields and restaurants, and has impacted all our food safety concerns.

It is time to recognize National Food Safety Education Month as an important process that cannot be ignored the other 11 months of the year.