In a planning meeting for the 2008 Beijing Games, the Senior Director of the Beijing Health Department told me that the most important element in preventing foodborne outbreaks is the people who work in the kitchens.
The question is: how do you instill that focus on food safety into the team?
The most effective food safety programs bring all resources to bear in supporting those programs. Senior management has a critical role in driving a food safety focused environment.
But there are challenges; many leaders in General Manager and Regional roles didn’t come up through the kitchen ranks, and the kitchen environment is unfamiliar — or even uncomfortable. The common assumption is the Chef will manage food safety. In doing so, organizations unintentionally remove one of the most powerful tools for ensuring that every dish is prepared safely.
The impact that a non-culinary senior leader can have on integrating food-safe practices into their operations cannot be overstated.
In high-pressure environments like international Games operations, these same signals become even more critical — and more visible.
In 15 minutes, starting from the kitchen door, senior managers can have a meaningful impact in reinforcing a food safety culture.
It works like this: when you have business, take 15 minutes in your Chef’s kitchen and look at what is actually happening. This is not meant to be a comprehensive audit. It is meant to immediately and unequivocally communicate to the team that you care about food safety.
You don’t need a full audit to see it. These five items can have a significant impact:
The Fast 5
1. Handwashing
Is anyone actually using the hand sink properly? When you enter the kitchen:
Is the hand sink accessible?
Is it stocked with soap and paper towels
Is there a trash can available?
Most importantly, does anyone use it?
The CDC attributes 89% of food borne illness linked to workers to improperly washed hands.
Clean Equipment
Are dishes, pots, pans, utensils and their storage spaces clean when you spot check them?
Look at:
The inside of a hotel pan
drawers or containers where utensils are stored.
Are they visibly clean and free of soil?
Are “clean” utensils stored in dirty environments?
Approximately 15% of outbreaks are associated with cross-contamination, including from dirty utensils.
Cross-Contamination
Is ready-to-eat food anywhere near raw product?
This became part of my Fast Five while overseeing NBC kitchens during the 2004 Athens Games. An EFET Inspector (the Greek food safety authority) would walk the kitchen in under 10 minutes checking one consistent risk:
Is raw food anywhere near cooked food? Look around:
is raw product being handled near ready-to-eat food?
Are prep areas properly separated?
This is a high-risk issue that often appears during busy periods.
4. Temperature Control (Exposure)
Is ready-to-eat food sitting out of refrigeration?
During peak periods, teams often try to save time by bringing large amounts of food out of refrigeration — especially for items like sandwiches or building protein-based salads.
ready-to-eat food must be kept cold during preparation and service. Temperatures can rise quickly, increasing the risk of bacterial growth.
5. Verification
Ask your Chef to use their thermometer to check:
a hot-held item (≥ 135° F)
a cold-held, ready-to-eat item (≤ 41° F)
This is the only slightly technical step — but it’s critical.
Having the Chef demonstrate temperature awareness reinforces:
• control
• accountability
• and the importance of verification in both food safety and quality.
Why The Fast Five Works
These aren’t random checks.
They provide insight into the effectiveness of the kitchen’s operating systems.
They reflect:
consistent behavior
disciplined execution
awareness of risk
accountability
If the Fast Five are working, the rest of your system usually is too.
If they’re not, it doesn’t matter how good your plans look — your system is already at risk of breaking down.
What This Really Tells You
This isn’t just about food safety. It’s about management systems. These same five signals show up in:
large-scale event operations
sustainability programs
food waste management systems.
In every case, success comes down to the same fundamentals:
leadership attention
consistent training
clear expectations
real-time verification
accountability at every level
These same fundamentals will show up again in sustainability and operational systems as we look beyond food safety.
The Leadership Factor
In high-performing operations — especially at scale — the difference isn’t just knowledge. It’s engagement from leadership.
If leadership:
shows up
looks at the right things
asks the right questions
the system works.
If not, it doesn’t. It’s that simple.
Final Thought
The Fast 5 takes 15 minutes.
What it reveals is whether your operation is:
controlled
disciplined
and functioning the way you think it is
Or not.
And that’s the same question that applies to every system we build in foodservice.
Photo Credit: Janet Hopkins, Beijing Summer Games