As a new delivery driver for Papa John's, I am required to possess a Food Handler's Card. This card presumably shows that I am well versed in food safety standards and practices, and therefore will not cause foodborne illness while making and/or delivering pizza.
What this card actually shows is that I am at least a notch above mentally disabled and that I have free time to go to the Pierce County Health Department (which, ironically, is pretty dirty) and sit through a training video and test that looks like it was designed for 3rd Graders at the oldest. There are lots of cartoony pictures, annoying sound effects that accompany every single action on the screen, and recorded bits of dialogue that read any and all text displayed on the screen to you. Seriously. When you hover your mouse pointer over the button that says "Next," a lady says the word "next" in a patronizing voice.
After 25 minutes of this mind-numbing instructional presentation, I was faced with a 32-question test about the material. All of the questions were multiple choice, and all of the answers were little boxes with a cartoon illustrating the choices. A voice would announce what the little pictures meant if you hovered your mouse pointer over them. I hurried through the test as quickly as I could, lest I nod off again. Anyway, I finished, got all the questions correct, and went to get my food handler card. I handed my testing fee to the civil servant behind the counter and was about to ask her if anyone is really dumb enough to fail the test when she asked another person next to her to get a computer set up to retest a girl that was waiting at the table behind me. Apparently she had failed the test before. I wish that I had thought to ask her what restaurant she was applying to work at so that I could make sure to never go there.
I elected to do this test rather than sit in their 90-minute food safety class. It only took me 45 minutes to rush through the video and the test. I would hate to think what I would have done during a 90-minute class about this stuff.
All in all, this makes me much less confident in the safety of the food available at restaurants in Pierce County. Great job, Pierce County Health Department!
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3 comments:
I totally agree- I remember when I got mine in high school and questions were like "if you find a rat eating the food, should you still serve it?" Totally rediculous, but I guess it makes some people feel better!
So do you have to wear food handler gloves when you deliver pizza?
Did they say the 10 second rule should not be followed?
I wanted to be hired on as a health inspector a few years ago in Phoenix. I thought it would be quite interesting, but I wasn't a registered sanitarian and the job went to another person.
I bet the other (90 min) class was mainly on convincing people to just wash their hands before touching food. It reminds me of an earlier post of yours.
I don't have to wear gloves at all, actually. When I deliver the pizzas, they are already in boxes. I actually don't touch the pizzas themselves with my hands at any point after they are cooked. We don't have to wear gloves when preparing the pizzas, either, because they go through the oven after we touch stuff, thereby killing germs.
So yeah, 90% of the stuff on the test doesn't apply to me. I am so glad that I had to waste my entire lunch break (plus a little extra) on it.
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