Normally, I share with you perspectives on food safety that relate directly to food and beverage operations. This month, let’s consider food and beverage in more general terms. For properties with full-service food and beverage, room service is an important part of your guest services package. For properties that do not offer room service, two questions come to mind. First, is food and beverage still being served in your guestrooms? Second, how much control do you, the food and beverage department, have over these products?

Most operations that provide room service have HACCP-based food safety plans designed to control the production and transportation of in-room food and beverage service products. Let’s consider what might be viewed as a “gray area” within a property’s overall food and beverage service program.

WHOSE JOB IS IT ANYWAY?
When I stay at a hotel that offers self-service in-room coffee or other self-service sales, is this offering a food and beverage department control matter or a rooms division matter? Most would say it is not a food and beverage department matter. Regardless of who takes responsibility for in-room coffee service or, in the most general terms, inroom food and beverage production/sales, there must be a proactive plan.

THINK ABOUT THIS?
Mr. Noro Virus checks into a room that offers self-service coffee brewing. This is a nice amenity, and he appreciates the availability of the coffee in the morning as he prepares for his day ahead. Noro gets a good night’s sleep, and the following morning he gets up early and heads to the bathroom to heed the call of nature. He then goes to the coffee maker to prepare a pot of coffee so it will be ready after he showers and shaves. There is no need to wash his hands before preparing his coffee because he will be taking a long hot shower shortly. He grabs the coffee pot, gets water from the bathroom sink, loads the brew bin with a coffee pouch, and turns on the machine. He grabs a coffee mug appropriately placed inverted on the tray next to the machine and sets it on the counter.

Just as he is ready to head back into the bathroom, his cell phone rings. He looks at the caller ID and realizes that first cup of coffee will not be consumed in the guestroom but later in the dining room at his breakfast meeting. Wanting to save the hotel from having to wash a “clean” mug, he returns the mug to the tray in the inverted position just as he found it, and in doing so, handles the mug by the top (a.k.a. the lip contact surface). He heads back to the bathroom to get cleaned up. After his shower, Noro quickly packs, checks out via the in-room system, and heads down to his breakfast meeting.

Now play out the scenario a little farther. When the room attendant comes in to clean and reset the room, what happens to the mug? Is the mug dirty? Is it sanitary? How would she/he know? What are the policies and procedures that will guide the room attendant’s behavior?

By definition, the mug is clean (free from visible soil). However, it is certainly not sanitary because it was handled improperly by a person who had not washed his hands after elimination of bodily wastes. This mug needs to be replaced with a mug that was washed, rinsed, and sanitized using standard procedures. Further, the mug should have been stored on the room attendant’s cart and kept sanitary. One last point in the process is the handling of the mug by the room attendant. Given all the duties a room attendant performs to bring a room back to standard, there is ample opportunity to contaminate a sanitary mug (or glass).

From a food safety perspective, there is the possibility of the next guest using the mug and ingesting some form of contamination left behind. Certainly, viral contamination is a larger risk factor over time than bacterial contamination, especially on a hard and somewhat dry surface. Other safety concerns come from “washing”/rinsing the coffee pot and the maintenance of the ice bucket.

Concerning ice buckets, my students have told me stories of other uses of this water-tight vessel. When placed bedside, it has been used as a vomit receptacle. If the guest rinses it thoroughly in the morning, how would a room attendant know what it contained earlier? The plastic ice bucket liner you may have provided would still be unused.

WHAT WE MUST DO
What is the answer? Disposable coffee cups and glassware? China mugs and glassware prewrapped in the warewashing area with some form of tamper identification wrapping? An SOP of always sanitizing ice buckets? It depends on your operation’s desired level of service and customer safety.

Whatever you decide to do, keep in mind that food and beverage, no matter where it is provided, is our responsibility. Our room attendants have the responsibility of providing “wares” maintained to the same standards as the wares in your fine dining venue. We ask them to clean showers, toilets, and sinks and maintain food and beverage service items behind closed doors—out of our sight and control. We must ensure that there is appropriate handling with minimal risk of recontaminating glasses, mugs, and other items.

And there is one last point to consider: If you provide in-room refrigerators for guests, at what temperature are they operating? Are you providing a refrigerator to hold food and beverage safely or a just an insulated box? How do you know? Does the unit have a thermometer inside?

If glassware, coffee mugs, ice buckets, and coffee pots could talk, what story would they tell? Some would likely be terrifying from a food safety/guest safety perspective. We must protect all food and beverage and the vessels we provide it in at all locations, at all times. Considering what the risk factors are within the guestroom and providing a HACCP-based plan to maintain a safe product is critical.

Norm Faiola, Ph.D. is associate dean and associate professor, Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management, Syracuse University. Email Dr. Faiola with questions or comments: nafaiola@syr.edu.