Active managerial control means the purposeful incorporation of specific actions or procedures by industry management into the operation of their business to attain control over foodborne illness risk factors. It embodies a preventive rather than reactive approach to food safety through a continuous system of monitoring and verification. The idea of AMC originates from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). You can read more about it in the FDA Food Code 2009: Annex 4.
The health inspector should never be the first person to tell you that you have a problem with a refrigerator, or that your rapid cooling methods aren't working. It is in your best interest to already have a system in place to monitor for, and address these problems when they come up. AMC consists of three parts:
- Policies: These lay out a clear plan for your employees to follow.
- Training: Ensure that your employees are trained to your policies so that they know them and can follow them.
- Verification: A way to ensure on a regular basis that the policies are being followed.
Let's use the example of a refrigerator that isn't working and is holding food at 50ºF. You would have policies that state all potentially hazardous food (PHF) must be held at or below 41ºF, and that a designated employee will check the temperatures in the refrigerators on a regular basis. You would make sure that your employee has sufficient training to understand the policy, as well as the training to know how to check the temperatures in the refrigerators. The employee must also be trained on what corrective action to take if they find PHF above 41ºF. Finally, they would document their findings and any action taken on a daily temperature log. This acts as verification, so that the manager can review the logs and know what is going on in his/her restaurant even when he/she isn't there. When an AMC system is in place, restaurant operators find violations long before the health inspector does and that means less violations.
We've intentionally provided you these AMC tools in a Word document format. This is so that you can download it, customize it to your operation, and make it your own.
AMC Tools
Policies
| Cleaning and Sanitizing Food Contact Surfaces |
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| Controlling Time and Temperature During Preparation |
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| Cooking Potentially Hazardous Foods |
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| Cooling Potentially Hazardous Foods |
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| Date Marking Ready-to-Eat, Potentially Hazardous Food |
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| Handling a Food Recall |
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| Holding Hot and Cold Potentially Hazardous Foods |
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| Personal Hygiene |
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| Preventing Contamination at Food Bars |
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| Preventing Cross-Contamination During Storage and Preparation |
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| Receiving Deliveries |
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| Reheating Potentially Hazardous Foods |
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| Serving Food |
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| Storing and Using Poisonous or Toxic Chemicals |
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| Transporting Food to Remote Sites (Satellite Kitchens) |
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| Using and Calibrating Thermometers |
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| Using Suitable Utensils When Handling Ready-to-Eat Foods |
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| Using Time Alone as a Public Health Control (TPHC) |
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| Washing Fruits and Vegetables |
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| Washing Hands |
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Verification Tools
| Cooking and Reheating Temperature Log |
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| Cooling Temperature Log |
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| Damaged or Discarded Product Log |
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| Food Contact Surfaces Cleaning and Sanitizing Log |
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| Food Safety Checklist |
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| Production Log |
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| Receiving Log |
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| Refrigeration Log |
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| Thermometer Calibration Log |
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Training Tools
Coming Soon!
If you need an AMC policy or tool that you don't see here, contact us and we'll do our best to create it for you!
