August, 2021

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Medford Oregon area E. coli Outbreak sickens at least 14 with 10 hospitalized – cause unnanounced

Bill Marler

Jackson County Public Health is investigating an unusually high number of Shiga toxin- producing Escherichia coli (STEC) cases. Since August 1, 2021, 14 cases have been reported to Jackson County, and 10 (71%) of these cases have been hospitalized. Urgent Flash Report_Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli_8.22.21. .

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Self-Ordering Kiosks: One Solution to the Current Labor Shortage

Modern Restaurant Management

The food and beverage industry is on a hiring frenzy. With pandemic-related restrictions being eased and dine-in being allowed again, restaurant owners are in need of a lot of staff. The April 2021 Job Openings and Labor Turnover summary issued by The Department of Labor showed that restaurants added almost 350,000 new job openings since March, bringing the sector’s total number of job openings as of April to 1.34 million.

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How to use Takeout to Accelerate Your Restaurant or Bar Profits

Sculpture Hospitality

The food and beverage inventory in your restaurant or bar is your biggest asset. Yet so many kitchens and bars are loaded with products that are never used in recipes or never sold - that’s liquid cash that’s eating into your profitability.

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Restaurants Can Save Money By Reducing Food Waste — Here’s How

Wasserstrom

Consumers and businesses waste food to the detriment of themselves and the planet. In this article, we will first discuss why food waste is a problem. Next, we will provide tips, techniques, and resources to help restaurants and other commercial foodservice operations take steps towards preventing waste altogether while boosting public relations and saving money. […].

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Food & Beverage Industry Report 2024

Driven by a diverse and exciting ecosystem of passionate, ambitious, and often young entrepreneurs, the Food & Beverage (F&B) sector is a highly competitive environment full of immense challenges and exciting opportunities. Expert Market’s 2024 industry report, sponsored by Toast, is informed by a survey of 522 U.S. food and beverage professionals, from restaurant owners to food service managers, providing insights into the real-time challenges and opportunities within the industry.

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Food Costing 101

Optimum Control

Have you been running your restaurant, and while consistently turning over covers, your profits don’t seem to be increasing? One of the first areas to look at is your food costing. The content of this article will cover what food costing is, how to calculate your restaurant’s food cost, and how you can use your actual food cost vs. theoretical food cost to hone your operations into an even more well-oiled machine than ever before.

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Hey FDA, Listeria can cause SAHCODHA ( Serious Adverse Health Consequences or Death to Humans or Animals)

Bill Marler

So, why not use the authority granted under the FSMA and use the FDA’s mandatory recall authority? According to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), before FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act)was enacted, the FDA relied on responsible parties to voluntarily recall violative food products (except infant formula recalls which are described under section 412 of the FD&C Act – Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act).

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How QR Code Technology Can Help Restaurants Beyond Menus and Ordering

Modern Restaurant Management

Restaurants across the country are returning to pre-pandemic operations. Dining rooms are open, and tables are at 100 percent capacity in most states. However, based on the spread of the delta variant, shifting mask guidance from the CDC, differing local government regulations (such as Los Angeles County’s current indoor mask requirement regardless of vaccination status) and low vaccination rates in various states , restaurant operations are still far from normal.

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Roadmap to Success: 4 Steps to Maximize Restaurant/Bar Profitability

Sculpture Hospitality

As we slowly move into what is hopefully the “post-pandemic world”, restaurants and bars around the globe are beginning to reopen their doors to guests and look at ways they can optimize their profitability.

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93: Entering a New Year of Conversations

Eating at a Meeting

It has been a year - 52 weeks - that the Eating at a Meeting podcast has been a thing. The recordings started as interviews for my blog (thrivemeetings.com/blog) and then Facebook live videos inside the Eating at a Meeting Facebook group. I'm in awe that I have interviewed and recorded 93 episodes in the 52 weeks. The wealth of knowledge and expertise my guests have provided to me and you, the listeners is incredible.

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Pests in the Wash Pack

MSU Agrifood Safety Produce Bites

Whether it's mice, rats, birds, or rabbits, many growers struggle with managing pests on the farm. In this episode, Phil Tocco , a Produce Safety Educator with MSU Extension, and Emily Hale , a Produce Safety Technician with the Blue Water Conservation District, give some advice on how to keep these pests under control. Additional Resources Animals in Production Areas – Article by Emily Hale Funding for this podcast was made possible in part by the Food and Drug Administration through grant PAR-

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If a company refused a recall and the product then caused harm, would it be liable for punitive damages?

Bill Marler

As I posted yesterday, I am still unclear why the FDA has not used its recall authority to force Felix Custom Smoking to recall the product that the FDA determined to be at risk of being tainted by the deadly pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes. Taking aside the weakness of the FDA (or whatever the cause of the inaction) and the moral failing of Felix Custom Smoking to recall product that might sicken or kill their customers; since Felix Custom Smoking refused the recall, the questions is: what if

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Jimmy John’s 2020 “Sproutbreak” may have been as many as 70 sick with E. coli O103

Bill Marler

When the CDC declared the Jimmy John’s E. coli O103 outbreak over at a total of 51 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O103 reported from 10 states, that included only 3 counted in Iowa. According to the CDC, illnesses started on dates ranging from January 6, 2020, to March 15, 2020. Ill people ranged in age from 1 to 79 years, with a median age of 29 years.

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What to Know About PPP Forgiveness Before Applying Through the SBA Portal

Modern Restaurant Management

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) program provided the relief many companies needed to stabilize their financial position and see them through the pandemic-created economic crisis. The capital was intended to help business owners pay employees, pay outstanding rent and other bills, and invest in reopening and getting back to business. The PPP program offered 5-year loans carrying a 1% interest rate making it some of the lowest cost financing small businesses were able to find.

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Restaurants Pivot to the new ‘Post-COVID’ Consumer Behavior Patterns

Modern Restaurant Management

The restaurant industry took the brunt of the pandemic’s economic and societal impact and is now being asked to respond to the permanently changed consumer landscape. As the world grapples with the next wave of COVID-19, businesses are confronted with product and labor shortages, a sudden increase in ecommerce and a variety of shifting consumption patterns.

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Returning to Restaurant Expansion

Modern Restaurant Management

If you’re operating a thriving restaurant business on the other side of the pandemic, that might mean you have a concept with legs to expand beyond your current location(s). Consider that around 60 percent of new restaurants fail within the first year. And nearly 80 percent shutter before their fifth anniversary. There is good reason to be optimistic about restarting restaurant expansion: restaurant sales continue to set records, the federal stimulus has added billions of dollars to compan

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Simple Tips for Delivering Exceptional Post-Pandemic Customer Experience

Modern Restaurant Management

As we return to in-person dining across the country, restaurants are facing yet another challenge: delivering an exceptional customer experience (CX) for guests who come with high expectations after more than a year stuck at home. Not only is there a ripe opportunity to attract formerly takeout-only customers for in-person dining, but an opportunity to enhance customer experience for all customers and differentiate from the competition.

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How Privacy Updates Will Impact Your Restaurant’s Ad Strategy

Modern Restaurant Management

Over the years, tech companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google have released privacy updates without most restaurant marketers thinking twice about how they impact their ad strategies. So, as a restaurant marketer why do you need to pay attention to this iOS14 update ? In short, Apple’s iOS14 update will give Apple users the option to opt-out of data sharing whenever they download an app.

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Protecting Patron Privacy While Using QR Codes

Modern Restaurant Management

The pandemic has led to profound and, in many cases, likely long lasting, changes in the way we live, work and conduct businesses. Restaurants, in particular, have had to go through significant transformation. One of the ways in which many restaurants have responded to new concerns about transmission of viruses and other contagions in their establishments has been through the adoption of QR coded menus.

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How Your Restaurant Can Tackle the Employee Shortage

Modern Restaurant Management

The employee shortage might be temporary, but there are ways that your business can attract talent now and retain a competitive advantage in the future. There are more jobs than ever before, yet restaurants are struggling to attract employees. The number of workers quitting their jobs in April reached new highs of four million, with 5.6% of restaurant workers quitting their jobs.

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Settling Third-Party Delivery Partner Payment Headaches

Modern Restaurant Management

Over the past few years, third-party apps like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats have made delivery and takeout faster and easier than ever. COVID-19 further accelerated this trend as restaurants turned to delivery models to reach consumers and maintain revenue. In fact, the National Restaurant Association found that 40 percent of consumers who ordered delivery from a restaurant in 2020 used a third-party company to do so.

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Building a Winning CMO-CFO Relationship with Better Marketing Data

Modern Restaurant Management

It’s a business tale as old as time: the newly-hired CMO figures he/she can move a whole lot of product if they can just get their hands on enough budget upfront to build out savvy online ordering tools, an app with a strong loyalty program, and a delivery solution with order injection, alongside the budget to market the brand on tv, build a social strategy injecting maximum snark and fun into social media, drive push notification strategy against marketing goals, and hire influencers from

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How a Virtual Supply Chain Identifies Challenges and Solutions for Restaurants

Modern Restaurant Management

While the restaurant sector shut down during the pandemic, food supply chain technologists were working hard to open new avenues to improve automated processes for restaurants. As restaurants reopened to increased costs and staff shortages, automation has become less a future goal than an urgent need. For example, technology exists that allows restaurant operators to take inventory in a matter of minutes, while achieving 99.9-percent accuracy, saving labor, reducing waste, and making food safer

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It’s Time to Focus on the Good

Modern Restaurant Management

Looking back on my last few articles, I have focused on facts, on technology and on the hard time that we are all having hiring staff. However, in the past few months, I have run across some incredible stories that are heartwarming and inspiring. They remind us not only that there are great people out there, but also that many of them work for us! The common thread is that each story is about incredible staff and great managers and that, together, they support each other inside and outside of th

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Gluten-Free: What Restaurants Need to Know

Modern Restaurant Management

Modern Restaurant Management ((MRM) asked Lindsey Yeakle, Gluten-Free Food Service (GFFS) Program Manager, Food Safety at Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG), what restaurants need to know about gluten-free options. Yeakle has a culinary history working at four-star and four-diamond rated restaurants. A celiac disease diagnosis encouraged her to attend culinary school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania Academy of Culinary Arts.

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Defects in Buildings: What Restaurant Owners Need to Know

Modern Restaurant Management

In light of the recent Surfside condominium collapse of Champlain Towers South, many building owners and tenants are evaluating the condition of their buildings, including deferred maintenance items and potential construction and design defects. Restaurant owners should likewise be concerned about the condition of their premises. Construction defects can devastatingly affect revenue and raise health and safety concerns for patrons and employees.

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Trends in Restaurant Wall Design

Modern Restaurant Management

The design of a restaurant can provide the ambiance needed to keep customers coming back, even if the building’s space isn’t divided into specific use areas. Restaurant owners can separate the kitchen, dining area, and bar using different techniques with walls, altering the layout of the space to create a better traffic flow and better experience.

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Common Hazards Associated with Meat Smoking

Modern Restaurant Management

It’s no surprise that many restaurant owners, especially Texans, rely on meat smokers as a staple cooking appliance. When serving a large customer base, smokers are a huge asset to restaurants. While smokers can be credited for creating some restaurants' finest dishes, they can be a great hazard to one’s business if not properly maintained.

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Engage Your Team and You’ll Engage Your Customers

Modern Restaurant Management

This adapted from " Manage to Engage. How Great Managers Achieve Remarkable Results. " We all know we feel valued when others make us feel valued. And in the restaurant business, particularly coming out of a pandemic, it can be tough from both sides – enabling the boss to help people feel valued and engaging teams to feel valuable. We also know there are a lot of people working who just don’t enjoy it – they are far from feeling valued at work, or in corporate speak, th

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Wildfire Season: How Restaurants Can Better Protect Themselves

Modern Restaurant Management

Starting in August , more than 9,000 wildfires burn in the U.S., on average, causing nearly two million acres of damage, which includes residential and business structures. Across the country, the most damaging wildfire seasons have been in recent years, including 2017, 2018, and 2020, accounting for 62% of the structures lost over the last 15 years.

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Digital Ordering Scores with Customers (Infographic)

Modern Restaurant Management

Ninety-eight percent of consumers used digital ordering in some form in the last 18 months and 70 percent prefer to order digitally over in-person, according to results from a customer ordering preferences survey from Koala. The survey of more than 600 American consumers ages 18+ revealed similarities in preferred ordering mediums, indicating a profound dependence on convenience.