Employee Hygiene

Employee hygiene is a critical component of food safety. One of the greatest challenges in a food processing plant is controlling the ingress and spread of harmful bacteria into the production area. Thus, proper employee hygiene is a significant critical control point (CCP), which focuses on those areas where cross contamination is most likely to occur. Some of the most critical aspects of employee hygiene are hand washing and footwear.

Hand Washing
Hand washing is a critical aspect of food safety. Proper hand hygiene is the food processing plant’s first line of defense against food contamination. Bacteria, viruses, and parasites can be transmitted from person to person and from persons to food, so health and hygiene of the workforce is extremely important.

According to some experts, the average person does not have proper hand washing habits. Most employees do not follow the best prescribed hand washing protocols. Although proper hand washing takes 20 to 40 seconds of scrubbing, most people wash their hands for only about 10 seconds.
Hand washing may sound like a very simple program to implement, but it can be riddled with many challenges, including correct washing to include fingernails, cuticles, and creases in fingers and hands.

To help ensure proper hand washing, it’s important to provide a product that the staff likes and wants to use. For example, one of the biggest challenges is occupational dermatitis which can be detrimental to hand hygiene and a deterrent to proper compliance.

Additionally, employees should be trained and bilingual signs posted in all hand washing areas. Try to keep training straightforward and simple because of multiple languages. You don’t need to have frequent training, but you do need to periodically refresh worker knowledge—and refresh the training itself, because it can get out of date and fail to keep staff engaged.

Footwear
Providing employees with plant-only footwear and sanitizing the footwear prior to entering the production environment are good CCPs. Common sanitation methods include boot baths, foaming floor sanitizer at entrances, and boot washing stations, which typically use chlorine- or quat-based sanitizers diluted with water. The systems should be constantly monitored to ensure the level of diluted sanitizer or parts per million (PPM) does not fall below certain levels.

Preventive Controls. One of the best ways to increase compliance with employee hygiene standards is to remove the obstacles to compliance. “In food processing plants, some obstacles can keep employees from adopting proper hand washing habits,” expert said. The tools for washing may be unavailable or inconveniently located; no clear signage or reinforcement exist; the schedule includes high turnover rates; or health risks are not understood or recognized by employees due to the lack of education.

How to Choose Colors for Your Restaurant

A color plays a great role for every restaurant. This is because you will choose colors for your walls, decor, tables, linens, the exterior, signage, logo, basically everything. But it is difficult to make the right choice because you may hesitate what colors are the best. For you not to make wrong choice you have to look through the next.

Red
Red is a color that is courageous, noticeable. Moreover, it gives a sense of urgency. This is the color that can also symbolize anger and love. Ethnic restaurants may choose this color. This is because red is the main color in so many country's flags.

Green
Green color may mean good luck, nature and money. But it can also symbolize envy. Nevertheless, green is usually a good choice for an accent color.

Blue 
This color symbolizes peace, calm and serenity. With this color a person may feel cool, cold or detached. A restaurant that is laid back can choose this one.

Yellow 
Yellow is a color that can signify happiness, joy and summer. It can also symbolize cheapness or miserliness. Besides, yellow is usually good as an accent color or as a background color.

Orange 
This color can mean excitement and enthusiasm. Orange is usually a good accent color.

Purple 
Passion and creativity are symbolized with this color. But in some countries and in some religions purple also means death. It is usually used as an accent color.

White
White symbolizes cleanliness, clarity and purity. This color is always a good choice for table linens and textiles. If you want to make your guests feel like there is more space in your restaurant, then you may choose this color.

Black
Excitement, class, boldness and be futuristic can be signified with black color. Moreover, it can also mean sadness, evil and irritation. Black is perfect for an accent color or as a compliment to a lighter color.

However, these are the basic colors that you will work from to create different shades and mixtures of colors for your restaurant. You may use pastels and lighter and darker versions of these colors. Be sure this will allow you to put together the perfect color scheme for your particular restaurant and in this way attract more customers. Think over all these colors and use them as accents to your chosen color scheme.

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How to Choose the Best Name for Your Business

When choosing a name for your business, start by deciding what you want it to communicate. To be most effective, your company name should highlight the key elements of your business. So the first and most significant step in choosing a name is deciding what your business is—knowing what your business’ unique selling point will help you choose a name that advertises that.

Keep in mind, the more your name communicates to consumers, the less effort you must put to explain it. According to naming experts, you should give priority to real words or combinations of words over fabricated words because people prefer words they can relate to and understand.

Naming specialists also be careful about choosing a name that's too hardly defined. Common downside are geographic names or generic names.

Precise names make sense if you intend to stay in a narrow place forever. If you have any desire of growing or expanding, though, you should find a name that's wide enough to contain your growth.

Before you start thinking up names for your new business, try to define the qualities you want your business to be identified with.

Namestorming

Begin your brainstorming search for a business name by looking in dictionaries, books and magazines to create ideas. Get your friends and relatives to help if you like; the more minds, the merrier. Think of as many feasible names as you can during this creative stage.

The trials you put your names through will vary depending on your concerns. Some considerations are fairly universal. For example, your name should be easy to pronounce, especially if you plan to rely a lot on print ads or signs. If people can’t pronounce your business name, they'll avoid saying it. And nothing could be more counterproductive to a starting company than to strangle its potential for word-of-mouth advertising.

Other considerations depend on more individual factors. For example, if you’re thinking about marketing your business globally or if you're located in a multilingual area, you should make sure your new name has no negative connotations in other languages. Lastly, make sure that your name is in no way embarrassing.

The major function of a name is to make a distinction of your business from others. You have to consider who’s out there already, what type of branding strategy they have taken, and how you can use a name to disconnect yourself. If any of your potential names is too close to that of your competitors', you should most likely get rid of it.

After you’ve narrowed the field to, say, four or five names that are memorable, expressive, and can be read by the average grade-schooler, you're good.

Final analysis

If you’re fortunate, you’ll end up with three to five names that pass all your tests. How do you make your final choice? First, remember all your first criteria. Which name best fits your objectives? Which name most precisely describes the company you have in mind? Which names do you like the best?

You could ask other people’s opinions. Or you could doodle an idea of what each name will look like on a sign or on business stationery. Read each name aloud, paying attention to the way it sounds if you foresee radio advertising or telemarketing in your future.

Once your verdict is made, start constructing your interests for the new name right away. Your name is your first step on the road to building a strong company identity, one that should last as long as you’re in business.