World Food Safety Day 2021

In our mission to satisfy the world’s appetite, the one thing that remains constant is our focus on safety and security for the wellbeing of our people and wider communities.

At Kitopi, we’ve adopted and launched several pioneering technologies which ensures safety across every level of the organization, be it our offices, CX center, warehouses and kitchens.

In honor of World Food Safety Day, we asked our Director of Business Excellence, Lays Laraya, to explain what exactly food safety means and what F&B outlets should keep an eye out for.

What does food safety consist of?

The goal of food safety is to safeguard food from harm and protect consumer health. It is a dynamic process in which a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is the foundation following a logical plan-do-check-act cycle:

• Plan: understating our scope & context in the industry and compliance requirements, establishing policies & procedures, building competence through training & awareness, and management commitment to provide tools and resources for effective deployment of FSMS.

• Do: Establishing Prerequisite programs, identifying hazards affecting ability to produce safe food, setting measurable controls, setting monitoring & verification methods

• Check: Conducting audits/inspections to check that we're actually doing what we committed to in our policies & procedures.

• Act: building on audit/inspection findings to continuously improve and strengthen our FSMS by addressing vulnerabilities and opportunities for improvement.

How important is food safety in F&B outlets?

This one is a no brainer! It’s extremely important.

The food enjoyed at restaurants all around the world goes through a tedious process of transportation, storage, and handling to move from farm to fork. Restaurants and brands that recognize this right from the get go, prioritizing it, investing in the right technology to ensure it’s a seamless and safe process, will ultimately always be the winner.

If I’m starting an F&B outlet, where do I start with food safety?

Building an Food Safety Management System from scratch might seem like a daunting task, but the principles are clear; think of the five pillars of food safety:

1st Pillar: Cleaning & Sanitation.

2nd Pillar: Personal Hygiene.

3rd Pillar: Food Storage.

4th Pillar: Temperature Control.

5th Pillar: Food Handling.

Success is dependent on creating awareness in the kitchen. Developing an understanding of food safety will help in implementing a system organically and sustainably.

Finally, obtaining food safety certifications such as HACCP & ISO

22000:2018, are crucial to building credibility and trust in the industry and with customers.

What are some things people miss when thinking of food safety?

Thinking of food safety as a burden on your business is a common misconception, but rather it is a KEY for success in F&B. Having standards set in place, and consistently regulated, ensures not only happy customers, but loyal ones, always coming back for more.

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Contributions by the Business Excellence team at Kitopi