Are you keeping your employees & guests safe? As you may have noticed, restaurants have been re-opening around the country. Some at reduced occupancy, others have even re-closed due to the pandemic.

I’ve been out to view several locations in various cities, recently, to view the handling of increased sanitation requirements. My biggest question right now, is how do you know if your employees and guests are safe? Do you even care if the guests you are serving could be COVID-19 positive? If I told you that guests were bragging about having COVID-19 while eating in your restaurant, how would you respond?

As operators or food establishments, I hope that you are making sure your employees are healthy. That they haven’t been around anyone that tested positive and need to quarantine instead of work. Yes, I know that is a stretch. Since most employees are afraid of losing their job. They don’t tell anyone when they are sick and will come into work possibly infecting everyone. If you don’t believe me, as any friend that works in a restaurant, they will confirm this).

I hope that workers are kept away from working when sick. What can we expect management to do if a guest, with Coronavirus, enters your establishment?

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do. Even health departments (regulations created by the state legislatures) do not have much guidance on this situation, either. You can “HOPE” that everyone that enters your establishment is healthy and negative. Even though there have been lots of false negatives. Not to mention that people have skipped the 14 day quarantine because they “feel fine”. As a reminder, you can still be contagious or asymptomatic (infected but no symptoms).

What should you do to keep your employees & guests safe?

With no real guidance on this issue, my advice is to treat every guest as if they have COVID-19. Clean and sanitize the entire area and everything they touch or are in contact with after each table turn. Have staff wash hands between tables and between every change in tasks (which they should be doing already). Do NOT USE GLOVES IN THE DINING ROOM (people tend to wash hands less when using gloves). Minimize the number of guests allowed in the establishment at all times. and above all else, clean, clean, clean.

I am readily availble to assist any foodservice establishment with food safety issues. Information on my consulting can be found here.