The stateās Department of Agriculture has just unveiled a new online training program for state seafood workers in an effort to help them field questions about the safety of Gulf of Mexico seafood.
The program, which is in its infancy, allows trainees to go through a fictional restaurant where they āshadowā the waitstaff and learn to answer common questions about the safety of gulf seafood. The multimedia program is available online.
According to the state Department of Agricultureās Martin May, the program is a partnership with theĀ Florida Restaurant and Lodging association, which has chapters across the state.
āFlorida has suffered from a one-two punch in recent years. ⦠First,with the economy ā which drove people out of restaurants and back into homes,ā says May. āAnd then the oil spill happens.ā
One of the issues with most training programs, according to May, is that restaurants donāt always have the capability of offering training programs, and the waitstaff doesnāt want to go through training without getting paid.
āAll these servers have to field a lot of questions, so we developed this online training module,ā May says. āWe didnāt want to get deep into the science, but rather arm waitstaff with good common-sense information to help them handle the questions and develop an attack plan.ā
Of the questions often asked of Florida waitstaff, āIs gulf seafood safe?ā and, āIs it being tested?ā are some of the most common.
According to information contained in the training program, āFloridaās seafood is the most tested seafood in the world.ā But recent surveys have shown that at least 63 percent of Florida residents still have concerns about the quality of the fish coming from the gulf, which still shows some oil slicks (in fact, concerns have increased since this past winter).
The stateās Division of Food Safety regularly tests gulf seafood for dispersants and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, both of which were released into the water after last yearās Deepwater Horizon disaster. According to information from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, all findings have so far been well below the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationās levels of concern.