As a restaurant or catering business, nothing is more important than managing your food safely and securely. This is necessary to safeguard the health of your customers and help you to keep on top of your stock. For many years, complicated and convoluted paper licenses and records were standard food safety management practices.
But now, things are changing. The rise of online services has created methods of digital food safety management that are revolutionizing the restaurant industry. Here are five reasons why you should consider digital food safety management for your catering business.
What is Digital Food Safety Management?
Whenever food is sold in cafes and restaurants or prepared by catering services, it needs to be held to established standards of cleanliness, safety, and storage. These practices are in place to make sure that the food we eat is fit for human consumption, without the risk of illness.
Digital food safety management tools are now replacing paper-based systems throughout the industry. These digital systems can take the form of dedicated software that adheres to global and national food safety standards as well as pre-formatted downloadable checklists to help staff comply with regulations.
Digital food safety management can also give restaurateurs ways of tracking their food supply chains and preparation practices remotely, allowing them to adhere to food standards much more easily. Automated software and systems are also available, allowing you to instantly get temperature and date checks done without lifting a finger.
Reasons to Consider Digital Food Safety Management
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Customer safety
Any catering or restaurant business is dependent on its patrons. Your valuable customers expect fantastic food and memorable meals with their friends and family. They don’t expect to be struck down by food poisoning after eating an undercooked chicken breast!
Using digital food safety management software, establishments can ensure that their staff are following national and global food safety regulations correctly to protect their patrons. With these tools, it’s possible to set regular alerts for date checks, call up the latest regulation changes, and remotely access and control digital food safety logs from anywhere to make sure that you’re serving the safest food possible.
Digital tools also make it possible to streamline and scrutinize your supply chain, which helps you to keep track of exactly where your ingredients are coming from. This allows you to zero in on any products that might be sub-par, avoiding safety issues before they affect your customers.
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Easier organization
Digital tools have made organizing almost every aspect of our lives much quicker and easier, and the same goes for food safety. With the old paper-based methods, it was easy to lose temperature checklists and date labels unless everything was organized down to the letter. That’s not easy to juggle with everything else when you’re running a busy restaurant.
Over weeks, months, and years, all this paperwork could build up into a bureaucratic nightmare, taking valuable time away from you and your staff instead of concentrating on serving your customers and making great food.
But with digital food safety management methods, the power of organization is at your fingertips. You can easily group all your checklists, date information, and food licenses together in a single place – like a cloud-based location or folder provided by your DFSM system. You can also easily organize all the details of your food suppliers, enabling you to pinpoint faulty foodstuffs or track where your ingredients are coming from.
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Up-to-date licenses
Several national and global regulatory bodies govern food safety, such as the internationally recognized Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations. These organizations will often require you to have up-to-date licenses. When industry standards are changed or tweaked, making sure you’ve got the right licenses can get confusing, especially if you’re using a paper-based system.
Digital HACCP-compatible safety plans make it easy to keep on top of the latest regulation changes, and many providers will notify you if the standards have changed. You’ll also be able to store your certificates and licenses online or within a cloud-based location. This also makes it easy to print off your certification to display within your premises to inform your customers of your safety ratings.
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Reduced workload
If some of your staff are buried under a mountain of health and safety paperwork, or someone has misplaced last week’s temperature check sheet, it takes time and effort to resolve. This is all time that could be spent serving your customers.
Using a digital food safety management system helps to relieve the pressure on you and your staff, streamlining your processes and helping you work more efficiently. All your licenses and readings for temperatures and dates can be kept in a single, easily accessible place. Pre-formatted checklists can be downloaded, instead of writing out or photocopying physical ones.
Automated systems are also becoming increasingly popular. These systems can automatically record important data such as temperature readings and use-by dates, giving you real-time information about your stock. This lessens the burden on your staff and allows them to concentrate on your customers.
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Less waste
In the current climate of the food industry, sustainability is at the forefront of food management practices. Constantly wasting unused or incorrectly dated food can place extra strain on the environment and add to the immense amounts of waste thrown into landfills.
By using a digital food safety management system, you can keep a much closer eye on how many ingredients you actually use and how much you end up wasting. Using remote digital food management methods, you can evaluate your supply chain and concentrate on more sustainable providers.
This helps you buy only what you need, allowing you to cut down on unused food that you’d otherwise have to throw away at the end of the week. This helps to reduce your supply costs and gives you more value for your money.
Conclusion
Investing in a digital food safety management system can be a great step forward for your restaurant. A digital HACCP plan helps you to keep on top of your ingredients, ensure that you have the right certification, save time, and reduce waste. All this allows you to concentrate on what really matters – giving your patrons a great experience.
Contact FoodDocs today to find the perfect HACCP plan that serves you and your customers!
