Toss those trays

College foodservice is often the incubator for trends that eventually spread into the restaurant mainstream. If that tradition holds true, get ready for two changes in the business: The end of the restaurant tray, and the emergence of a new foodservice position called “the forager.”

Dennis Pierce, the diretor of dining services for the University of Connecticut, provided a preview of both changes during the Food Safety Symposium on Sunday (see earlier posts for some context).

The forager, he explained, is a position that’s arising as a result of interest in procuring local produce and ingredients. “It’s someone who has a culinary background, as well as a procurement background,” said Pierce.

Because localized purchasing can require menu re-engineering, he continued, restaurants will need someone with the ability to adjust recipes or tweak the bill of fare as supplies change with the growing seasons. But at the same time, he noted, that person has to know how to adjudge how much of a local item will be needed, and where to get it a feasible price.

Pierce cited the hypothetical example of adding locally grown garlic. The forager would have to know what's needed, in terms of volume, and how to get it.

The other trend, he said, is already well underway in college dining. “If you’ve not heard about this,” he said, “you will. It’s trayless dining.”

He recounted how Middlebury College had eliminated trays from its feeding facilities as a way of saving water in its cleaning operations. That prompted UConn to give it a try last semester. For a week, two dining facilities operated as usual, but with Pierce and his team studying and apparently benchmarking certain variables. The next week, they educated the students about such issues as water conservation. The third week, they stopped using trays.

“We discovered that we had 900 lbs. less of food waste and saved 2,000 gallons of water,” he said.

That prompted the school to pull trays this semester from dining facilities that cater to freshmen, since they’ve not yet been accustomed to using trays.

Pierce also described the college’s newest sustainable venture, the use of a “pulper” to convert food waste into compost material, which the school plans to sell. The waste is pulverized and dumped into a bin, which is then heated. It apparently consolidates into what looks like dirt.

He also recounted the school's experiences with bee hives. It's already put in 10 hives, and is harvesting hundreds of pounds of honey. Ten more are coming. UConn plans not only to use the honey as a sweetener, but also to sell it in convenience stores.

Putting a face on food safety

You have to appreciate the above-and-beyond efforts of the food-safety specialists attending the Food Safety Symposium this weekend in Charlotte, N.C. They could’ve kicked back last night with an extra hot chocolate, or maybe declared it a wild night because they had the three-custard dessert at the local hotspot where we had dinner. Instead, they insisted on demonstrating the germ-killing capabilities of alcoholic beverages. Again and again and again.

I, too, had a few drinks at the post-dinner party, presented by our hosts, Ecolab. But that doesn’t change the impact of today’s event, a look at how the restaurant industry is trying to protect guests more effectively from foodborne disease. The first session of our two-day conference was crammed with practical advice on safeguarding the food supply. But what really sticks with me is how the effort to avert foodborne disease was personified.

Instead of talking in stark scientific terms about bacteria and viruses, speaker after speaker put a human face on the issue. Dave Theno, our keynote speaker, explained that he was driven to push for food-safety improvements by memories of a six-year-old girl who died during the E. coli catastrophe that almost destroyed Jack in the Box in the early 1990s. He characterized the girl, the first child to die in the epidemic, as “the angel” who inspires him to keep driving for greater safeguards.

“I think of my 2-year-old and my 9-year-old. They’re my 6-year-old,” said Angel Sanford of the McAlister’s fast-casual chain. “Quality is something I take very, very personally.”

Kathy Means of the Produce Marketing Association showed pictures of Kyle Algood and Ruby Trautz, two victims of the spinach contamination of three years ago. Dr. Bruce Chords of Ecolab mentioned how his grandchildren had brought home a norovirus infection—which he then caught. My NRN colleague, Robin Allen, mentioned that her daughter had been hospitalized with the pathogen. Patrick Sterling of Texas Roadhouse recounted how he called all 150 victims of a norovirus outbreak that was believed to be connected with one of that chain’s restaurants.

Clearly, despite all the problems they've seen or noted, attendees regard the victims of a contagion as people, not statistics.

Attendees also heard terms like virons, lateral flow immunosensors and bacteriophages. But they and presenters never let the meeting drift too far from the sensibility that they are protecting people in restaurants, not working with petri dishes in some lab.

The potential downside of buying local

We’re only one panel and one speaker into the Symposium (see the post below for some context), but already some definite themes are emerging. One, clearly, is the need for traceability, which by the consensus of presenters thus far is a particularly pointed need because of rising imports. The other, perhaps not surprisingly, is local sourcing, which has been largely cited as a food safety challenge.

Said Theno: “Many of these local suppliers do not have the sophisticated controls in place. [Yet] you need a lot of processes and process controls for food safety. Small does not necessarily mean bad;” some small players, he noted, do indeed put the necessary systems and safeguards in place. But, he suggested, a lot simply can’t afford it.

“ Sacrificing safety for the marketing aura of saying ‘locally produced’ is not wise,” he concluded.

Mike Reinert, VP of supply management, talked about the need of educating those small local suppliers, while applying the same sort of criteria that would be used for suppliers of any size: third-party audits, checking for a food-safety security plan, employee background checks.

The safeguards aren’t unique to that realm, he suggested. But the challenge is making sure that they’re applied. He indicated that Delaware North tries to do it by educating its suppliers. He also suggested that Delaware North personnel are also trained to ensure standards are met by the local players from which they buy.

Live from the NRN Food Safety Symposium

Bacteria must be high-fiving and hooting with delight. Dave Theno, the food-safety guru who was brought in by Jack in the Box in the midst of the chain’s E. coli crisis to right the situation, has just noted that he’s retiring. His presentation, on where the restaurant industry is heading food-safety-wise, underscores what an arch-nemesis the pathogens are about to lose.

Indeed, Theno has just invited the audience of 40 or so chain food-safety experts to contact him if they’re getting pushback from upper-level executives about investing in food safety.

“You got a CEO who doesn’t get it? Say, ‘I got a guy you’ve gotta talk to.’ Set it up, and I’ll call the guy,” Theno said. “And afterward, he’s going to like you a lot more, because I’m a real asshole to talk with, so you’ll look a lot better.”

Theno ended his presentation by recounting how he met a woman from Safe Tables Our Priority, whose six-year-old daughter was the first child to die in the Jack in the Box E. coli crisis in the early 1990s. Theno recounted how the woman promised her lost daughter that she would press for reforms on the girl’s behalf. Theno said he saw the girl as his “personal angel” in helping him push for safer foods.

If you know someone in food safety, tell them or give them a six-year-old. Trust me, it’ll get a lot easier.

"Take home your own six-year-old," he said.

I’m writing this from Nation’s Restaurant News’ Food Safety Symposium in Charlotte, N.C. I’ll be posting updates here throughout the conference, hopefully on a near-live basis.

So stay tuned. And contact me if you’re a chain restaurant executive who’d like to reach Theno.