How do you keep your food safe in your restaurant? The key to food safety management is upgrading your food inspection process.
You may have already heard of many horror stories about contaminants found in restaurant dishes, such as flies, roaches, and extraneous materials. As a restaurant owner or supervisor, you want to ensure that a similar incident will never happen to you, which can jeopardize your entire business. Therefore, you must prioritize upgrading your food inspection process.
With the advancement of modern technology, there are many ways to ensure food safety in the industry, from the latest inspection equipment to food quality control techniques, protocols, and guidelines.
In this article, find out how you can upgrade your restaurant’s food inspection process.
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Implement An X-Ray System
Many restaurants have expanded from dine-in and take-out meals to meal deliveries. However, the complex food preparation and packaging pose a high contamination risk due to different raw ingredients being used. Hence, ready-to-eat products, which don’t require cooking, present an even higher food safety risk to consumers.
Protect your restaurant’s brand name by implementing a reliable x-ray system to help detect various foreign materials in ready-to-eat foods to ensure food safety. X-ray machines can detect plastic, metals, glass, and other foreign materials in ready-to-eat products, such as ready-to-eat salads and packed sandwiches.
Here’s how a food x-ray system works:
- As the food passes through the x-ray scanner, a slight reduction of the machine’s electromagnetic energy occurs.
- The x-ray machine displays contaminants, like small metals, glass, and plastic parts, in a darker colour on a greyscale image for easier identification.
- Food x-ray machines scan multiple food items per second. These food scanners emit safe, low-dose radiation, enough to kill microbes without affecting the food’s taste and nutritional value.
Learn more about food x-ray machines and metal detectors by checking the services of TDI Packsys or other similar companies.
Use Food Traceability Software
Food recalls are bad for any food business, including restaurants. Being part of a safety recall event can tarnish a restaurant’s good reputation because customers will likely become extra cautious and avoid patronizing the business.
Improve your food inspection process by using food traceability software. This technology can help ensure proper food safety management because it tracks food products from their original handling points up to the plating. Food tracing software allows you to track and manage records of raw ingredient orders, provide allergen warnings, and maintain food safety requirements.
Adopt Digital Checklists
Many restaurant managers and kitchen staff still use pen and paper despite the advancement of technology in tracking and completing orders and food hygiene. This practice could result in damaged or misplaced important restaurant data or records. Hence, it’s about time to shift to mobile apps and digitize checklists.
Now, more than ever, restaurants should embrace technology because food safety audits require complete and accurate restaurant data records. Kitchen employees can use digital food safety checklists to:
Complete And Record Individual Tasks
Having a systematic and digitized way of recording individual tasks promotes easy performance tracking to ensure everyone complies with food safety standards. The records can also help in reviewing work performance for kitchen staff promotions.
Schedule Routine Food Safety Inspections
Restaurant supervisors can schedule food safety inspections and inform all kitchen crew members quickly using the mobile app.
Create Real-Time Reports
Having instant access to food safety information promotes a more streamlined food inspection process. It saves time and effort, promoting greater productivity for all kitchen staff members. Moreover, it promotes proper restaurant data management that authorized kitchen personnel can access anytime.
Monitor restaurant operations compliance
Digital recording enables restaurant managers to access records centrally via the cloud technology-powered mobile app. Having complete visibility of all branch operations allows restaurant owners and managers to create more effective policies and programs.
Prompt Violation Correction
Digitizing checklists is also an excellent way to ensure taking prompt corrective actions without physically visiting a branch.
Upgrade Compliance Practices With Food Safety Standards
Restaurant crews are highly knowledgeable and trained in food safety. However, proper food inspection is sometimes overlooked because of peak business demands, which pressure kitchen staff to work quickly. It’s during these times that food safety lapses and mishaps may happen.
It’s not enough to set frequent reminders for your kitchen crew. You need to upgrade your food inspection process in compliance with food safety standards. A good example is by reviewing closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage in your restaurant and showing what practices need to be changed based on actual performance. Include this step in your regular meetings to improve reminder retention and ensure strict compliance.
Restaurant owners and managers should reinforce and monitor compliance with food safety standards, such as ensuring the following:
Proper Handwashing
Front and back restaurant staff must wash their hands for 20 seconds using the right technique after handling unwashed vegetables, dairy products, and raw fish and meat. Washing hands is a must after breaks, coughing, sneezing, touching phones, and throwing garbage.
Prevent Cross-Contamination
Cross-contamination is a major culprit in restaurant food poisoning. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that your kitchen staff members are using separate cutting or chopping boards for different food groups. Wash fruits and vegetables properly before serving. In addition, it’s important to clean the dishes properly, and keep all cupboards and fridges clean and organized at all times.
Healthy Kitchen Staff
Ensure that your kitchen staff members are fit and healthy to work in your restaurant. If any of them is suffering from diarrhoea or flu, ensure they get enough rest and proper treatment before coming to work to prevent germ contamination in food and disease transmission among the rest of your staff.
Enforce Strict Food Preparation Rules
Implement food safety rules and enforce them strictly, such as avoiding wearing jewellery, watches, and other accessories that could potentially contaminate food. All your kitchen staff must wear hairnets and clean uniforms.
Conclusion
Food inspection must be every restaurant’s top priority to deliver safe and high-quality meals to customers. Implementing a streamlined food inspection process can help not only to safeguard the health and safety of your loyal customers but also to protect your business reputation. In that way, you can gain more restaurant traffic and improve your brand image as a top-notch restaurant leveraging advanced technology and the best food safety practices.
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