Author: Andrew Warth

The National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe team has released guidance to help restaurants restart when the nation begins reopening its businesses.

Download the NRA Restaurant Reopening Guidance

ServSafe partnered with the Food and Drug Administration, public health officials, industry representatives, academia, the Conference for Food Protection, and Ecolab Inc., to create protocols for restaurants to reopen safely.

Additionally, the document incorporates recommendations from FDA’s just-released Best Practices for Retail Food Stores, Restaurants, and Food Pick-Up/Delivery Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The guidance offers instruction on how to begin serving customers in partial and full-service capacities. The Association encourages combining the guidelines with existing corporate policies, the FDA Food Code, ServSafe training, and recommendations from local health officials.

The guidelines cover four areas.

1.     Food safety – Follow and maintain food-safety practices as carefully as the COVID-19 safety protocols.

·        Discard all out-of-date food items.

·        Put sneeze guards in place where local and state officials permit salad bars and buffets.

·        Change, wash and sanitize utensils frequently, and place appropriate barriers in open areas. Cafeteria-style (worker served) is permissible with appropriate barriers in place.

·        If providing “grab-and-go” service, stock coolers to no more than minimum levels.

·        Ensure the person in charge at your establishment is ServSafe certified and that his or her certification is up to date. Provide food-handler training to refresh employees.

 

2. Cleaning and sanitizing

·        Thoroughly detail-clean and sanitize your entire facility, especially if it’s been closed.

·        Focus on high-contact areas touched by both employees and guests.

·        Do not overlook seldom-touched surfaces.

·        Follow sanitizing material guidance to ensure it is at effective sanitizing strength, and to protect surfaces.

·        Between seatings, clean and sanitize table condiments, digital-ordering devices, check presenters, self-service areas, tabletops, and common-touch areas.

·        Avoid all food contact surfaces when using disinfectants.

·        Discard all single-use items. Consider using rolled silverware and eliminating table presets.

·        Remove lemons and unwrapped straws from self-service drink stations.

·        Clean and sanitize reusable menus. If you use paper menus, discard them after each customer use.

·        Implement procedures to increase how often you clean and sanitize surfaces in the back-of-house.

·        Avoid all food contact surfaces when using disinfectants.

·        Check restrooms regularly, and clean and sanitize them based on frequency of use.

·        Make hand sanitizer readily available to guests. Consider touchless hand sanitizing solutions.

 

3.     Employee health monitoring and personal hygiene

·       It is important to do a pre-check to make sure employees are healthy as they report to work.

·        If an employee becomes ill or presents signs of illness, identify the signs during a pre-work screening and send them home. Follow your business’s established policies on when the ill employee can return to work. At a minimum, follow CDC guidelines; tell the employee to self-isolate for seven days from the onset of symptoms, and be symptom-free for three days without medication.

·        The CDC has not mandated taking an employee’s temperature. Any operator who chooses to do so should engage health officials first and adopt policies aligned with proper procedures.

·        Train all employees on the importance of frequent hand washing, use of hand sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol content, and give clear instruction to avoid touching hands to face.

 

4. Social distancing – Guests as well as employees should maintain distance.

·        Post signage at the entrance stating no one with a fever or symptoms of COVID-19 can enter the restaurant.

·        Update floor plans for common dining areas, redesigning seating arrangements to ensure at least six feet of separation between table setups.

·        Design a process so guests stay separated while waiting for seating. Don’t allow them to congregate in waiting or bar areas. This process can include floor markings, outdoor distancing, waiting in cars, etc.

·        Limit party size at tables to no more than the established “maximums approved” as recommended by CDC or approved by local and state government.

·        Physical barriers are acceptable where practical, especially in booth seating.

·        Consider a reservations-only or call-ahead-seating business model to better space diners.

·        Social distancing measures based on square footage should take into account service and guest areas.

·        Remind third-party delivery drivers and any suppliers that you have internal distancing requirements.

·        Limit contact between wait staff and guests.

·        If practical, physical barriers such as partitions or Plexiglas at registers are acceptable.

·        Use technology where possible to reduce person-to-person interaction, including mobile ordering, menu tablets, texts on arrival for seating, and contactless payment.

·        Determine ingress/egress to and from restrooms to establish paths that mitigate proximity for guests and staff.

·        Consider an exit from the facility separate from the entrance.

ATLANTA (April 20, 2020) – ASHRAE has published two statements to define guidance on managing the spread of SARS–CoV–2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease (Coronavirus) with respect to the operation and maintenance of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems in buildings.

“In light of the current global pandemic, it’s critically important that ASHRAE responds with guidance on mitigating the transmission of the virus, as well as ventilation and filtration recommendations,” said 2019-20 ASHRAE President Darryl K. Boyce, P.Eng. “ASHRAE has a significant role to play in ensuring safe and healthy building environments and these statements offer the expert strategies needed at this time.”

ASHRAE developed the following statements in response to widening false statements surrounding HVAC systems. ASHRAE officially opposes the advice not to run residential or commercial HVAC systems and asserts that keeping air conditioners on during this time can help control the spread of the virus. The official statements are below.

ASHRAE’s statement on airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through the air is sufficiently likely that airborne exposure to the virus should be controlled. Changes to building operations, including the operation of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems, can reduce airborne exposures.

ASHRAE’s statement on operation of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems to reduce SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 transmission

Ventilation and filtration provided by heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems can reduce the airborne concentration of SARS-CoV-2 and thus the risk of transmission through the air. Unconditioned spaces can cause thermal stress to people that may be directly life threatening and that may also lower resistance to infection. In general, disabling of heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems is not a recommended measure to reduce the transmission of the virus.

HVAC filters, along with other strategies, help to reduce virus transmission while removing other air contaminants that may have health effects.

ASHRAE’s Environmental Health Committee also developed an Emerging Issues Brief to support the two above statements:

There is great concern about the real possibility of transmission through the air of various pathogens, especially SARS-CoV-2, among staff and administration in healthcare facilities, office workers, retail workers and patrons, manufacturing workers, and residents in private and public facilities and the general public in outdoor settings and in public transportation.

ASHRAE has created the Epidemic Task Force, comprised of leading experts to address the relationship between the spread of disease and HVAC in buildings during of the current pandemic and future epidemics. The ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee’s Position Document Committee also updated a Position Document on Infectious Aerosols.

“ASHRAE, working with its industry partners, is uniquely qualified to provide guidance on the design, operation, and maintenance of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to prepare for future epidemics,” said ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force chair, ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee voting member and 2013-14 ASHRAE Presidential Member Bill Bahnfleth.

Please visit the newly updated ASHRAE’s COVID-19 Resources webpage at ashrae.org/COVID19 for additional details. The page includes frequently asked questions and the latest information on the ETF’s guidance for healthcare facilities, residential buildings and other issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

About ASHRAE
Founded in 1894, ASHRAE is a global professional society committed to serve humanity by advancing the arts and sciences of heating ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and their allied fields.

As an industry leader in research, standards writing, publishing, certification and continuing education, ASHRAE and its members are dedicated to promoting a healthy and sustainable built environment for all, through strategic partnerships with organizations in the HVAC&R community and across related industries.

ASHRAE is celebrating 125 years of shaping the built environment. Become a member of ASHRAE by visiting ashrae.org/join.  

For more information and to stay up-to-date on ASHRAE, visit ashrae.org and connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

From Progressive Grocer

The Kroger Co. is serving as a beacon for American business by creating a grand blueprint for retailers, restaurants and foodservice companies, manufacturers, logistics and distribution centers, and other industries to follow as they start crafting plans for safe work environments during the COVID-19 crisis.

Kroger’s Blueprint for Businesses includes actionable recommendations and learnings that the company has applied in the last six weeks to safeguard its associates, customers and communities, as well as what it has learned through regular interaction with business leaders in other countries, including Italy, Singapore and China – all of which were ahead of the U.S. in terms of the pandemic cycling through their countries.

“With nearly 2,800 grocery stores, 35 manufacturing plants, 44 distribution centers and 460,000 associates across the country, Kroger has learned and continues to learn a lot while keeping our stores and supply chain open and serving America during the pandemic,” said Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chairman and CEO. “As an essential business, we have led with our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit and have taken extensive measures across our footprint to safeguard our associates, customers and supply chain. We are sharing what we’ve learned to help businesses begin to reopen safely and in sync with their respective state plans.”

Many recommendations in Kroger’s crisis guide can be adapted for any industry sector, and the blueprint provides a set of distinct, deliberate processes for several key sectors, including: Retail, Manufacturing, Distribution Centers/Supply Chain, Food Service/Restaurants, and Office environments.

Late last week, several U.S. governors and business organizations asked Kroger to help their state’s businesses to reopen safely. Kroger says it developed this new platform – KrogerBlueprint.com – in 36 hours to begin providing immediate assistance to states and businesses with plans to update with new learnings in real time. For the rest of the story click here.