From Kitchen to Table: Celebrating Safety Standards in Every bite

In the fast-paced world of the HORECA (Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering) industry, ensuring food safety and maintaining exceptional taste and convenience are crucial for success. Ready-to-cook solutions have emerged as a game-changer in meeting these demands. By implementing rigorous quality control measures at every step of the process, ready-to-cook products offer a reliable solution that enhances food safety without compromising taste or convenience.

The Importance of Food Safety in HORECA:

Food safety is of utmost importance in the HORECA industry. Establishments must prioritize maintaining customer trust and loyalty by ensuring that the food they serve is safe and free from contamination. The consequences of foodborne illnesses can be severe, leading to negative impacts on business reputation and potential legal consequences.

The Rise of Ready-to-Cook Solutions:

Ready-to-cook products have gained popularity among HORECA establishments due to their numerous benefits. These products are pre-prepared with high-quality ingredients, requiring minimal effort and time for chefs and kitchen staff. Some key advantages include time and labor savings, consistent taste and quality, reduced food waste, and improved inventory management.

Quality Assurance at Every Step:

To ensure food safety and maintain the highest standards, ready-to-cook solutions, implement strict quality control measures at every stage of the process. The manufacturing facilities are HACCP certified, and these brands follow all Good Manufacturing Practises (GMP) to ensure the products meet strict quality standards, reducing the pressure on the procurement, storage, and consumption stages of the HORECA system.

1. Sourcing of Ingredients: These brands employ stringent selection criteria for suppliers, ensuring the highest quality ingredients are used. Regular quality checks and adherence to safety standards guarantee that only the best and safe ingredients make their way into the products.

2. Manufacturing Process: State-of-the-art facilities and technology are utilized to prepare ready-to-cook products. Adherence to standardized recipes and processes ensures consistency in taste, texture, and safety. Regular inspections and audits as prescribed by HACP managed system are conducted to ensure compliance with stringent quality control protocols.

3. Packaging and Storage: Secure and tamper-proof packaging and retort processing technology are employed to maintain the freshness and integrity of the products through regular analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement, and handling during the manufacturing and distribution of the finished products. Proper labelling and batch traceability provide transparency and allow for effective tracking. Appropriate storage conditions are maintained to preserve the quality and safety of the products.

4. Handling and Distribution:Brands pay special attention to the handling and distribution of their ready-to-cook products. Robust distribution of chain management is implemented to maintain product freshness and integrity. Timely delivery to HORECA establishments is ensured, accompanied by comprehensive guidelines and training for proper handling and storage.

Compliance with Food Safety Regulations:These brands strictly adheres to local and international food safety regulations. The company obtains necessary certifications and licenses to ensure compliance. Regular inspections and audits are conducted to maintain the highest standards of food safety.

Customer Satisfaction and Trust: By offering ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat solutions, these brands deliver consistent taste and quality to customers. Transparent communication about food safety practices builds trust with customers. The company values customer feedback and promptly addresses any concerns, further enhancing customer satisfaction and trust.
 

Recently, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) along with Vigilance officials conducted surprise raids on various restaurants and ghee manufacturing units in Vijayawada. It was learnt that the ghee manufacturing units are supplying low quality products to their customers, and the restaurants are also using banned chemicals to enhance the taste of the food. 

Also Read: FSSAI plans to use next-gen technology to ensure food safety, quality

Whether it is a small restaurant or a major restaurant chain, health code violations can pose a significant threat to the life of the business and its consumers. Without consistent internal audits and inspection checks, it can be challenging for restaurants to ensure they will be prepared when the inspector arrives. 

Many of the cleaning tasks done on a regular basis don’t even scratch the surface of what restaurant auditors will be paying close attention to. This is why weekly or even monthly inspections should be carried out internally. And while ticking off the checklist, many overlook the very basic yet imperative factors that stop them by acing a restaurant inspection. 

Especially post-pandemic, owners now have to get lean and focus on minor detailing along with the need to quickly analyse a problem and fix it. Raj Sadvilkar, Partner and Co-Founder of Angrezi Dhaba believe that restaurant inspections will be a key consideration for how foods offered at the restaurant should be safely handled and delivered to the customers. “Also key practices for employee health, cleaning and sanitizing and following all the SOP’s for receiving customer, defining high standard for cleaning and housekeeping will be crucial so that team and guests can feel safe in the environment and serve better,” he commented. 

Beforehand training for impromptu visits

The proper strategy for a successful health inspection is to be ready at all times. As Ritesh Saini, Director of Local Gurugram stated, “If you are an owner, manager or a restaurateur, health inspection is enough to keep you up at night.” To ace, one should follow the proper strategy that is to be ready for your health inspection and to act like every day is a health inspection day. 

It is crucial to train the employees before the food inspection. Teach them how to behave and instruct them to proactively correct any error before the food inspector enters the restaurant. Familiarize them with the rules, regulations, and guidelines to follow during a food inspection. The restaurant staff should be competent enough in following all the safety and hygiene norms in front of the food inspector as this directly affects the scoring of the restaurant. 

Proper documents in place

According to Nikhil Mittal, Co-founder of Infinity, many owners are missing out on Food Handler Certificate which is certified by the Indian Health Service (IHS). “Ensure a food handler certificate for every employee,” he commented. Keeping up with food safety guidelines as they change can be a challenge for restaurant owners, especially when one expands and open more locations in other provinces, states and cities. Staying directly in contact with the local health department to stay on top of food safety guidelines can be the key. 

Ensuring proper food storage 

Places and shelves where the food is stored need to be adequate, clean, and hygienic enough to avoid contamination. Cooked and ready-to-eat food should be kept above raw food. Ensure proper wrapping of food products so that they do not spill or drip on the shelves.

Saini recommends avoiding uncovered stored food and inappropriate containers. “No labels on your food for ‘use-by dates, no gloves on your employees and storing cleaning products near the pantry. Lack of temperature control should not be practiced. Covid appropriate maintenance schedule can’t be skipped. To ensure distinction one should conduct an impromptu inspection for their own restaurant,” he further added. 

Additionally, chemicals and detergents should be stored in separate areas and not with the raw materials and ingredients. Proper stock rotation should be practiced so that the quality of raw materials does not deteriorate with time.

Having an immediate exit plan

Although there are ample points one needs to consider while firming up a restaurant’s safety and hygiene standards, one must also have an effective exit plan ready. “You and your staff need to be aware of an immediate exit plan so that everyone is safe if at all something goes wrong in the restaurant,” shared Shyam Thakur of Momo King by adding that setting up a daily maintenance schedule can help the last moment mishaps. 

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While no one enters the restaurant business out of a love for food safety, owners and managers must take it seriously. By protecting customers from foodborne illnesses, one is protecting his/her restaurant’s reputation.