In this episode of the Food Safetyist Podcast, we delve into a variety of topics surrounding food safety and hygiene. We kick off with a discussion sparked by a recent article about the contentious issue of allowing dogs in cafes. While some see it as unhygienic, others, including myself, believe there are bigger food safety concerns, such as improper glove use by cafe staff. We also touch on the presence of birds in food service areas and whether our concerns about animals in these spaces are sometimes overblown.
We then move on to discuss a recent product recall involving milk-flavoured biscuits due to undeclared allergens, highlighting the importance of vigilance in food safety practices. This leads us into a broader conversation about the regulations surrounding animals in dining areas, with a focus on the rules in Queensland and Victoria.
In a more personal segment, I share my unexpected journey into the field of food safety, detailing how I transitioned from a different career path to becoming a lead food safety auditor. I discuss the challenges and learning curves faced along the way, and how I now use tools like Safety Culture to streamline processes and ensure compliance.
Finally, I emphasise that food safety, while sometimes daunting, is manageable with the right systems and mindset. I encourage listeners to view food safety as a crucial part of ensuring the quality and safety of what we consume, and I invite them to contribute their thoughts and tips for future episodes.
Transcript
Good morning, fellow food safetiest, and welcome to this, the food safetiest podcast. In this episode, I’m going to talk about I don’t know, maybe s q f, what it is, my thoughts on it, and all that sort of stuff. So anyway, without further ado, let’s get on with the show. I, thought I’d kick this episode off with comments on a little bit of a rant that was in the paper today. Let me pull it up. And would you believe I can’t find it? There we go. It appeared actually, no. It was last week in the Herald Sun. Only just came across it today. And the, headline is, there’s a sign on the door, gross cafe trend Aussies are officially sick of.
And what you think, oh, are they talking about cafe staff not putting gloves on when they’re handling food or using the gloved hand to handle money or to do all sorts of different things? No. What it is is about taking dogs into cafes. For some reason, it’s got people a little bit upset. Let me hang on. I just kinda wanna find out what’s what the local council says. Anyway, the the article says that there’s people saying that it’s gross. Actually, it came from Reddit. Someone living in Sydney, comments, where I live, there’s a really nice place, popular cafe with outdoor seating area. There is a sign on the door saying, please keep dogs outside, but a lot of people ignore it, bring their pooches inside while waiting for takeaway coffee. I’m an animal lover, but not a big fan of dogs inside eateries.
They are unhygienic. Would it be a Karen move to ask the staff to enforce the dog policy? Now what are your thoughts on that? Now for me, I think there’s less things to worry about with regards to food safety than dogs. Obviously, the disclaimer with that one is as long as they’re not bringing a big Great Dane or something like that, into the shop or the cafe or the dogs, you know, not jumping around and doing as dogs do. They just sit on the floor, and then that’s it. You know, think about it. Other cafes, you know, they’re I’m not gonna throw shade at them. It’s one of those areas where the food safety standards do tend to slip a bit, and most people just turn around and say, yep. That’s fine. And then just, you know, move on.
You know, as as I said before at the start, it’s people not putting gloves on when they’re handling food. Or if they’ve got gloves on, they use the glove to, you know, touch money. If you’re an old school person and you pay with cash, or they’d even use the same gloves across different foods that are they are making, etcetera, etcetera. So I I think from my perspective, a little dog or even a, you know, medium sized dog, and the reality of things is that the people that take their dogs into cafes to collect a coffee, they’re normally little dogs. You know, you wouldn’t see someone taking a, a lab or a shepherd in or anything like that. So it’s normally a small small dog.
You know, that’s yeah. I I I think that’s the least of the worries about what’s going on. So, no, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. Is is this person just jumping up and down about nothing, or is, you know, animals in, you know, food food service areas or cafes something to be concerned about? Yep. Actually, talking about that, it also reminds me of that social media video and and every what was going around a couple of weeks ago about pigeons, coming into a food service area. Birds, maybe a little bit, especially if they go into the food service area. Because, you know, when they leave their deposits, there’s no way of, cleaning that up or checking that, though.
You know? Yeah. I don’t know. Are we getting a little bit too sensitive? And and I’m not saying that, you know, you should allow birds in everywhere, but, you know, if a bird comes in, to an area on the floor or something like that, is it something to worry about? Yep. Sure enough. If it’s behind the counter as was evidenced in that, you know, that store. But yeah. Anyway, you know, there there’s gonna be animals. There’s, you know, until we get to the stage where we wipe out all the, rats and mice and birds and everything else. And it’s just us humans running around on the planet. There’s always going to be an animal somewhere.
Admittedly, sometimes you don’t want to see them in the area where the food’s getting prepared and all that. But, yeah, with how, the buildings are getting made and with the way everything is going at the moment, I think we’re going to see a lot more interactions, with that. And I mean, you know, here at home, we’ve got ants. And it’s just one of those things. Had you know, you can’t get rid of them. I mean, are they coming in because it’s gonna start raining? Are they coming in because it hasn’t rained in a while and everything’s dry and they’re coming in for food or for moisture or whatever they do? I don’t know. And then, you know, if by the other side of the coin and this is something that, you know, on a on a personal note that what’s what’s worse, having a few ants crawl across the floor, even if it is a big line of ants, or, you know, the exposure to whatever chemicals that we have to use to to keep them away.
And I think that’s something that we need to, be thinking about as well. Anyway, I’m not talking about in the work sense or anything like that. I’m talking about at home. Is, you know, yeah, you’ve got ants. You know, do you really wanna get out with a bug spray and and have that go everywhere? And then, you know, if you’ve got your own pets, how will that bug spray interact with them, and all that sort of stuff. So but, anyway, that’s getting on to a different tangent, that I wasn’t expecting to go on. So, anyway, what else is it?
Talk about some recalls. What recalls have happened this week? I think there was only one, and that was the, other day. The 24th. And would you believe it’s taking today for the interrupts to decide not to work for me? Here we go. So run thing trading Melbourne, biscuits, milk flavor, 150 grams. They have been recalled for undeclared allergens, so milk and egg. If you have purchased those products normally from according to the, it’s, been for sale at Asian grocery stores in Victoria and WA. They are a milk flavored biscuit with a date marking of 1st April 2025.
If you want to do, consumers who have milk and or egg allergies or intolerance should not consume this product. So you can return it to your place of purchase for a full refund. And, again, I’ll include a link to that in the show notes. Yes. Anyhow, I was trying to find out what it says on, the local council website because I think there was something in Queensland where they years ago, they changed the rule. Oh, there you go. Here we go. According to, if you’re a food business or assistance animals, well, normally, assistance animals are allowed everywhere, but pet dogs in outdoor eating areas or under what circumstances?
According to standard 3.2.2. So obviously, assistance allows assistance animals are allowed. Pet dogs may be allowed in outdoor dining areas. Live animals, except for those ones that you’re going to be consuming later on, are not permitted in areas where food is handled. Pet dogs may be permitted, but only in outdoor dining areas that are not enclosed. If you enclose the outdoor dining area, for example, even for a short term, for example, in winter, use cafe blinds or retractable awning, then dogs are not allowed while it is enclosed. Oh, yeah. You know, that’s only for zen’s. I think what was it? There was something that the Victoria’s held back.
Yarra City Council. Yeah. So if the food act says not permitted of any any of any any area of a premises where food is handled, including where food is served. The only exception is that dogs may be permitted in the outside. So, yeah. But anyway, as I said, I think we’re, probably looking for things where we shouldn’t be looking for problems. But anyway, I’m not going to waffle about that anymore. What else do we have? You know, I think, you know, these these going to be concerns about actually, no. I won’t go there. Yes, sir.
Sorry about that, folks. Lost my train of thought there for a minute. So what am I gonna talk about? Okay. Let’s you know, I’m gonna share with you how I got into food safety. It’s a bit of a different, what would you say, career path or career move than I was originally expecting. And, you know, if someone had told me, you know, 10 years ago I’d be doing this now, I would have laughed and said, you’re kidding. Anyway, one of the businesses, 3 manufacturing businesses that I work for, the manager of the QA department gave notice and moved on as they as they do and things like that. And the the boss turned around and and tapped me on the shoulder and said that I was to look after it. So I thought, oh, yeah. That’s fairly easy.
You know, there’s couple of people involved, a bit of a department, and I was just managing them. So that was fine for a while. And then the second in charge decided to move on and sort of, okay. Yep. We got to recruit a coordinator and another QA manager. So I went through the process of that and not being able to find staff that were a good fit for the business. You know, I started taking on more and more and more of a role in that. From that time, obviously, done, the HAZOP training. I’ve got, SQF, a lead food safety, lead auditor for food safety.
And, what is it? The food safety supervisor training, or certificate or whatever it is, under my belt as well. So I’m sort of developing a bit more of a no. There’s a bit more of a creak. Since that time, I’ve done, 2 pillars meter audits. I’ve gone gone through a couple of SQF audits, some hass up audits, halal audits, and, DFSV. What is it? The proved arrangements audits. So it’s it’s getting interesting. And, yeah, you know, it it’s one of those things is that this as I said, you know, the inspiration for this podcast is for those who don’t have a university background or those who are just getting into it thinking, oh, you know, what? Should I do it? Should I didn’t do it? Is it scary?
You know, and all that sort of stuff. Honestly, I don’t think it is. It’s it’s a huge learning curve. So if you’re not prepared to learn about things and and make mistakes and, all that sort of stuff, then maybe it’s not for you. But, you know, where I am at the moment or where I am now, everything’s really good systemized. There’s a really good, master schedule put down. It’s, you know, relatively easy to follow and the accountability. And, you know, I do that in combination with, an online app called Safety Culture. So I’ve a lot of the internal audits and things like that I’ve put onto that. So it just makes it easier.
It’s sometimes it’s a ticking flick or it’s all, electronic based. So you go through the processes of taking photos of what you need to take photos of, and things like that. So, you know, in I’m improving things more to make it a a a lot more simpler to run. So it’s just a matter of going through a couple of processes, and things like that. So, you know, don’t don’t be scared of food safety. Same as when the council come around for their annual inspections and all that sort of stuff. I mean, you know, they they like them or love them or hate them. They’re there to do a job. We’re there to do a job.
So, you know, it’s about, you know, doing, what, you know, doing you know, making sure that what the the environment that you’re producing the food in is up to the standards. And ultimately, it comes down to, you know, would you eat it? Would you consume that product that has come out of the area that you’re in? You know, and if you think, oh, yeah. You know, I’ve got a car sign, stomach, I’ll be able to eat anything. Well, you know, would you be prepared for one of your family members to eat it, and all that sort of stuff? So, yeah, it it’s the thing. You know, food safety is not scary. You know, all the the talk of salmonella and E. Coli and all that sort of stuff.
It can be a bit frightening or a bit daunting at times, but, you know, as long as you follow the processes and, you know, it’s a the the process is tested for its integrity, then, you know, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. So, but, yeah, actually think about that. I might I’ll make a note. No. I’ll make every effort to talk about that, that audits and processes, in the next episode. So I’m what’s the time now? 18 minutes, waffled for a little bit. So, yeah, I might end it here. Once I get into a rhythm, then, you know, shows will be a little bit more structured and try and stay in target, not waffle all over the place and wander all over the place.
Say, that being said, this is a podcast for you. I’m not promoting anything in here. So this is a, listener funded podcast. I’m not taking advertising or anything like that. So if you’ve got any, you know, any information or any tips or anything that you want included in the podcast, you can either do it with your name or anonymously. Please send me a tip to notes, at foodsafety.ist, and, I’ll do my best to get it in the next one. So, yeah, while you’re there, check out the blog, which is food safety.ist, and check out the show notes for this one, which will be food safety.ist forward slash I think I’m gonna call this 1 double zero two because it’s the second episode.
Yes. So, anyway, until next time. I think I might leave it here, and bye for now.