Received this staff-wide email this morning about towels left inside the freezer. Is it really a health code violation? Maybe because there’s no way to tell if the towels were used or not? (They weren’t) I immediately replied back and owned up to it, but I just find the serious tone of the email bizarre given how many dirty towels are left in and above food prep areas that I’m constantly cleaning up without a peep from the manager. Not to mention cleaning supplies left above food and prep areas that I’m constantly removing and have brought to manager’s attention several times to no avail.
Thanks for reading this and any response/ advice you might share is greatly appreciated. I’m just really disheartened by this given how hard I work cleaning up everyone else’s messes/violations and now I get dinged for trying to do something to help my coworkers in this heat. Thanks again.
by MantisTobogganMD-Phd
40 Comments
We literally use clean towels to cover cleaned scallops to prevent moisture. This person has no idea what they’re talking about
If they were stored above food maybe. If they’re segregated from food, I can’t see this being a health hazard.
If this is a chain, maybe it’s a corporate standard? They sometimes get weird
I don’t understand what the violation is.
Also, next time I’m on a brunch shift and need to find a better hiding place for towels at the end of the week, I know where I’m going to go.
He doesn’t want to watch the video because he is afraid to fire you.
It’s the unfortunate case that you can’t prove they’re not used.
Like walking into a hotel room and finding a opened condom on the floor. I make the assumption it’s used, because I ain’t investigating.
On the topic of assumptions, I’d guess that boss man has been dinged for this before given the hostile email. I fucking hate aggressive emails, so I’d recommend talking to them or if they’re not present, the highest manager you have on site.
Heard, date and label towels in the freezer: “Towels for holding fresh produce”
🤣 someone is big mad
While I know we all want to trash the management and insist that they know nothing….
All of here know the towels are in the freezer so people can put a cold towel on their neck on a hot day or something along those lines. For clarity, I’m not nessassairly against that practice.
Do you know who is against this practice? Every regional health authority in North America. When a towel’s intended use becomes a cold compress, it ceases to be a towel and becomes attire or perhaps first aid equipment?
No health authority would tolerate storing uniforms in the cooler. Hence, you may not store your collection of terry cloth scarves in the freezer.
What are the odds the health inspector comes in and sees it? Honestly low. Has this restaurant been dinged for this in the past? Maybe.
Or perhaps the email has nothing to do with food safety. Perhaps their is some dipshit on the staff going through 30 cold scarves a day, and management is over running g out of towels and using health and safety regulations to justify the moratorium.
To compare cold towel neck scarves to the towels on top of scallopss or mussels is a bit naive and just looking for loopholes.
To suggest that the clean cold towles in the freezer should not be a food safety violation, I support your endevor to have your local health authority change that regulation. Give me the petition, and I’ll sign it. I’ll even contribute to the gofundme so you can hire scientists to build your case.
But to suggest that it is not a current health violation is naive, disingenuous, or willfully ignorant.
just put them in a half pan and be done with it
Sounds like grounds for a work slowdown.
Frozen towel is old hat. Discover the magic of ice glove.
What if they’re in a container and labeled?
Depends. It could be interpreted as a violation. Not a serious health violation.
I’ve never heard of clean towels in a freezer being a health code violation, not that I know every state’s codes so YMMV.
However, threatening your team’s jobs because they are trying to stay on their feet during a heat wave is just a dick move if you ask me.
I bet that place has bad ac in the kitchen and it’s hotter than hell in there
Stuff it in a Ziploc.
Not a violation if they are labeled as clean towels.
I think the issue is there is no way of identifying of the towels are clean or dirty.
Probably more of a cost saving issue trying to save money on laundering towels
Easiest thing to do is contact your health inspector. They love when you ask questions. Plus then you have it in writing from an authority
Say ‘same’ one more time
Thanks everyone for your responses! It would seem by strict letter of the code it is against proper towel storage, but not necessarily a major violation? I’ll ask about storing them in a container or on a sheet pan and labeled, or I may just forget the whole thing and put my head down and do my job.
Its not that serious. Ive taken servsafe classes over the course of 25 years or more (yeah im old). Ive worked in a kitchen that was +125° (real) in NC during the summer. We kept towels in a bucket that was labeled for single use. Our health inspector was considered a damn god, atleast thats what he thought of himself. But in NC they can shut you down, blast your place of business on the news and bam, you are done. We had zero issues with towels labeled. zero.
Hell I worked in a place where a plastic jug of cornstarch was stored in the walk-in freezer and it wasn’t for anyone’s neck…Someone had placed a piece of painters tape on it. It read: “NO DOUBLE DIPPING!”
Tell the owners to shell out money for make up air hood and a better HVAC then.
Some owners/managers can go straight to hell.
If this is an issue, just put the frozen towels in a closed container lol. You manager sounds a bit like a douche. Especially considering the other things you mention in your post
Tell em to watch your hips swing on the way out cause they can cram that shit with walnuts
One place I worked at got dinged for this. But the guy also said it wasn’t a big deal. We always have at least one speed rack in the freezer so he said as long as they were covered and on the bottom of it we’re fine.
So it looks like your mileage may vary based on whoever is inspecting.
Firing someone over it sounds really excessive. Also maybe focus on getting things to keep your cooks from overheating instead of cracking the whip when they take matters into their own hands.
Put the towels in a sealed container. I feel like the issue is putting sweaty towels back into the freezer. Single use and use a bin. Boom problem solved
Looks like someone’s boss is a control freak
I work for a food industry that has staff working outside at almost all hours of the day, we use ice vests that get quite sweaty and gross by the end of the day and the entire vest unit is stored in the freezer. It stays in a large tub with no lid, underneath the food items. Both corporate quality visits and Ecolab(Texas) have both approved this so I wouldn’t say clean towels stored in the freezer are a health hazard.
couple of extra points to note.
Get a fucking air conditioner in the fucking kitchen or you can cook you fucking nit.
Reason for it? My balls are sliding into my shoes and the cold rag helps me cool enough to not step on my own balls while on the line.
What fuckin moron doesn’t grasp why freezer towels exists?
Even if it’s a violation, he should view this as a training opportunity rather than an opportunity to be a cunt.
Nope, your boss is just a fucking moron. I have no idea how someone who thinks this could even tie their shoes in the morning. They are staring up the towering bell curve from the very bottom of it. Absolute idiots.
EDIT: Honestly you can tell just by the way this was worded that this person is a horrible manager. Like, even if what they were saying is true, it would be easy to think it was fine. They come out yelling and screaming and threatening to review security footage over an innocent mistake? God, what a pathetic display of insecurity and incompetence. This industry never fails to promote the worst absolute clowns into positions of power. It would truly make my day for you to print out this thread and send it to them.
Maybe they’re mad about something else and making up issues. There’s no health code violation with clean rags in a freezer.
We all can go back and forth on this, but if you really want to know, just e-mail your health inspector and ask. They will for sure answer that question for you.
Can you ask if they can be kept in a labeled, sealed fish tub?
The only thing that I can think of is if you use the towel and then put it back to refreeze instead of getting a new towel. It either sounds like the manager has no idea what they’re talking about, or they just hate you and want you to be uncomfortable.
Sounds more like a manager power tripping and choosing a hill to die on.
Restaurant workers and claiming anything they don’t like is a health code violation. Name a better duo.
Let me guess. The tight-ass rat who wrote that moved up from the FOH. Mgmt doesn’t give any fucks about their crew. Reminds me of a few weeks in the summer when the exhaust fans were barely functioning. It was a low hood, maybe 6 ft, over my triple broiler and smoke was billowing out right in my face all night long. 2 weeks? 3 weeks? Can’t remember. I remember they didn’t seem like it was a problem.