What should a food service manager do if they suspect food is contaminated?

When a food service manager suspects that food is contaminated, the most appropriate action is to discard the food and investigate the source of contamination. This response is crucial for ensuring the safety of customers and maintaining public health standards.

Discarding the suspected contaminated food prevents it from being consumed, which is essential to avoid foodborne illnesses that can arise from unsafe food. Investigating the source of contamination is equally important to identify potential hazards in the food handling process. This may involve evaluating supplier practices, storage conditions, and employee handling procedures to ensure similar issues do not occur in the future.

By prioritizing the safety of the food served, the manager upholds food safety regulations and minimizes the risk of negative health outcomes for customers. Options that suggest storing the food in a separate area, continuing to serve it, or trying to salvage as much as possible fail to address the immediate risk to health and safety that contaminated food presents. Each of these alternatives could lead to exposing customers to unsafe food, which is not aligned with responsible food service practices.