This experience was related by one of my "live" students, a manager of a small seafood cafe'.
I wouldn't want it to get around, for obvious reasons, so help me keep it a secret.
A food handler was routinely late for work, then performed lazily or shirked his duties entirely, until the manager finally fired him. The manager's mistake was announcing the termination mid-shift, and giving the employee until the end of the day to leave. You should know that the employee didn't take it well. To compound the problem the manager left for a couple of hours, giving the fired worker time to formulate a diabolical revenge tactic.
When the workday had ended, the manager thoughtfully inspected the facility for signs of tampering, but found nothing. From then on he went about his daily routine of maintaining cleanliness, chemical precautions, and temperature checks for food and equipment, which included a freezer with a door-side-dial thermometer reading 0°F. Nothing was amiss. He was a happy manager. That is, he was happy until the health inspector dropped by.
The inspector noted the reading on the freezer's temperature dial. But, he also stepped inside. As he entered the walk-in freezer he commented, "It sure feels warmer than zero." Inside he took more temperature readings, then, when he compared them to the outside dial, he made one more comment, "You've got a problem. Your dial says 'zero,' but it's actually 30 degrees warmer.
On close inspection the former employee's plot was discovered. The ex-worker had painted a face on the dial that read 0°F, but he had set the unit's controls to 31°F. No matter what the temperature was inside the freezer, the dial would always read ZERO.
Now, it was revealed that the manager was lazy, too. He had become complacent, relying completely on the door-side thermometer, never taking the time to notice, let alone verify, the actual temperature inside the freezer.
Well, the ex-food handler got away with it, but not the manager. As part of his punishment for being a lazy temp-taker, he was required to re-take my food safety training course. That's how I got his story.
To his credit, he immediately added no less than 32 thermometers inside the walk-in freezer. Everyday he makes sure they all agree with one another and with the door-side dial, which has been unpainted. Lastly, he practices stepping into the freezer with his eyes closed, so he can learn to feel the air just like the inspector.
He said he learned two things. To please an inspector, learn to think like one. And to keep from being tricked again, learn to think like a vengeful former assistant. "I have to keep my eyes and my mind open," he said. "But I have to admit, painting that dial was a pretty good trick."
Andy Bozeman, AHI 9200, CFPM
phone 334-834-1714
internet FoodSafetyTrainingCenter.com
