Technology in the Food Industry
Food safety is one of the most important aspects of the restaurant industry. And while food safety management has improved dramatically over the years, restaurants are still responsible for more than half of all E.coli and Salmonella outbreaks in the United States. That’s why it’s crucial to implement a food safety program that utilizes technology to audit store operations, reinforce food hygiene, and ensure brand compliance to dramatically improve food safety in restaurants.
Food safety issues are not only a significant public health risk, but they’re also a public relations disaster. News travels quickly on social media, and consumer food safety awareness is at an all-time high. Any loss in consumer confidence after an outbreak can devastate a restaurant, regardless of its previous reputation. To stay ahead of the curve, many leading restaurants are turning to technological innovations such as mobile food safety software to streamline operations, increase visibility, and proactively find and fix problems.
Federal and state governments are tightening the belt on restaurants, food manufacturers, and agriculture, and new regulations tend to be fairly complex and frequently amended, expanded, or completely changed. Many restaurants are employing regular internal audits to remain perpetually compliant and always “audit-ready.” This allows restaurants to find and fix problems faster, ensure proper procedures are being followed, maintain quality and credibility, drive day-to-day efficiency, and continuously improve operations. The only problem is that too many restaurants are still using paper checklists, forms, and logbooks to collect and organize their data, which isn’t very effective.
Mobile technology can meet these increasing operational demands. Using apps and software technology to perform regular audits and inspections and storing data in the cloud to streamline food safety processes improves efficiency at every touchpoint. You can also capture critical information, manage tasks, and automate notifications, alerts, and maintenance requests. The data gathered can be leveraged to make more informed decisions, and intuitive dashboards can be used to analyze trends across multiple locations.
Whether you’re performing an operational audit, a food safety inspection, or a brand compliance audit (or all three), you want to be sure that the mobile software you choose offers the features and functionality you need to ensure ongoing compliance within your operation. An effective mobile solution can keep your business audit-ready at all times, give you real-time visibility across stores, eliminate redundant work, utilize automation to fix problems faster, and reduce the risk of a dangerous and costly food safety incident or outbreak.
