Eating out at a buffet can be a good value for your money as you can consume as much as you wish for one price. But eating at a buffet can be a food safety challenge, both for the food service establishment as well as you as a customer. The restaurant that serves a buffet follows specific guidelines of making sure all the food is kept within proper temperatures. Cold foods such as salad bar foods should be kept cool and in small serving quantities to be changed regularly.  When changing the food, new bowls of the food are used rather than just adding fresh food to the same serving bowl that has some remaining food in it. If foods are hot, they are to be kept on a heating element or under a light that will keep them hot. Serving utensils should be provided for each food.

In all that a restaurant may do to keep foods safe for their customers, there are some responsibilities of the customer to help keep the food safe as well. How customers choose to serve themselves and handle themselves at the buffet line can help or hinder the safety of the food for themselves and other customers. Below are a few things to think about the next time you go through a buffet line.

• Number one is to wash your hands. After arriving at the restaurant, go into the bathroom and wash your hands. Your hands have probably come into contact with your face, hair, doorknobs and other places where they can pick up bacteria and germs that you don’t want to consume with your food. So wash well with warm water, soap and dry with a paper
• Use the serving utensil that is provided for each specific food item. Do not use one utensil to serve several food items. If one food item happens to be contaminated and others are not and you use the same spoon for serving, then that cross-contaminates them all.

Etiquette Tips for Eating at a Buffet

Buffet etiquette finds its place toward the casual end of the dining etiquette spectrum.  When you're mindful of the situation and show consideration to others, it's difficult to do it wrong.

During the pandemic buffets were suspended and they may never make a full return.  Time will tell. However, as with any social situation, knowing what to do makes it easier to feel comfortable and to extend that feeling of comfort to other people, too.

Smorgasbord?  Serve yourself affair?  Salad bar?  All you can eat?  Each of these fall into the category for which buffet etiquette applies.

What You Should Do

• Servers will be serving you. 

• There are usually many item choices, but it's better to maintain decorum and not stack your plate high with food just because it is offered.  You can always make a second round through.

• If it’s a one-time-through buffet, accommodate accordingly.

• If you return to the line, leave your plate behind and get a clean plate. The same goes for beverages if you need a refill.

• Carry food and drinks separately to the table to avoid a potentially hazardous balancing act.  (Sometimes drinks are served and you won’t have to worry about this.)

• When you sit down you can begin eating.  However, if you are at a gala affair and your table has been invited to the buffet line, you will arrive back at your table along with others.  As a courtesy, wait until two or three table companions arrive before eating.

• Service staff always appreciate hearing “Thank you!”  Wear a smile.
  

Buffet Etiquette Faux Pas

• Please do not cough or sneeze near the food.  Step out of the line or turn away and sneeze into your elbow to cover mouth and nose.

• Don’t be a space invader, reaching around or in front of someone who is serving himself, or standing too close.  Respect personal space.

• Eating begins when you sit down at the table — not in the buffet line.

• Try not to hold up the line by asking lengthy questions about how the food was prepared.  Better to skip it and not keep other hungry people waiting.

• And lastly:  no doggie bags!
  

Attending buffet events can be fun and adventurous when there are many new foods to try.  
Bon appetit!

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