Turano Florida Bun
Turano Florida Bun Pulls Audit Success Fresh from the Oven
A typical hamburger bun starts with a mixture of flour and water, a little yeast, maybe a dash of salt, and gets baked until it’s golden brown. But if you ask the team at Turano Florida Bun in Orlando, Florida, about its recipe, you’ll find that they bake in a few other special ingredients with Gold Medal Award-winning results.
Producing more than 1,000 buns per minute, Turano distributes its goods to thousands of restaurants throughout the Southeast, so maintaining a clean facility is of the utmost importance. In fact, keeping pests and rodents out of its 80,000 square-foot facility is so critical that they partner with Orkin and enlist the Gold Medal™ Protection program. The results have served up Turano Florida Bun with its first Gold Medal™ IPM Partner Award, presented by Orkin, The IPM Institute of North America and NSF.
To learn more about Turano Florida Bun’s golden recipe, we spoke with Jeff Benny, sanitation manager at the Orlando bakery. Here is an edited transcription of that interview.
What makes your program award-winning?
I think it comes down to two things – we have a state-of-the-art facility, and we take internal audits very seriously. In fact, we have four corporate audits a year and weekly audits with each of our department managers. With internal audits like these in place, we’re always prepared for the most critical third-party audit. Plus, we’ve seen great results. They have yet to find a reason to deduct points from our audits.
Why did you choose Orkin’s Gold Medal Protection program?
I had the opportunity to work with Orkin in the past and received perfect scores on my audits. So when I came to Turano Florida Bun, I sat down and took a look at their Gold Medal™ Protection program, and it seemed to fit our facility’s needs quite well. For example, as part of the program we use PowerTrak™, which allows us to access all pest information online. I sign on once or twice a week to check the status. In fact, my boss is also able to keep track of the data, including pest activity or treatments performed, through the online system.
Why is IPM so important to your facility?
Integrated Pest Management is essential to the lifeblood of our facility. At the end of the day, we have to bring our customers, current and potential, through our bakery and show them the measures we are taking to keep the food we produce away from pests. They need to feel good about serving a bun from our bakery and not worry that it has been exposed to pests.
Tell us about your partnership with Orkin.
Simply put, the folks on our Orkin team are just an awesome group of people – we work remarkably well together. The Pro is in weekly to do inspections and update our records, and just as frequently I’m in touch with the local Service Manager and even the Orkin Branch Manager. On audit days, they make themselves available to work with the auditor however possible. They are always on site when I need them, no matter how big or small the issue. I think there is a sense that we’re in this together; we’re a team, and we’re here to help each other grow.