A food-safety training program for Maryland restaurants will be extended to grocery stores where take-away meal business is growing.

The Maryland Council on Food Safety, a program of the Maryland Hospitality Education Foundation, is offering a special designation for grocery stores that sponsor safety seminars for employees, give food safety skills tests to new hires and send managers to sanitation certification classes.

The foundation, a nonprofit education and training group serving the state's hospitality industry, first offered its designation to restaurants in January. It has certified about 55 restaurants, institutions and catering companies.

Since then, the foundation has received several inquiries from grocery chains about similar training. The take-away meal category is expected to grow at least 5 percent annually for the next few years.

"The purchasing public is willing to spend dollars in a place where they have an extra sense of confidence and that's becoming more understood" by grocery chains, said Lisl Wilkinson, the foundation's executive vice president.

Pub Date: 7/03/98