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Strong food safety practices are one of the few essential elements for operating a successful business in the food industry. Not only does food safety impact your customers’ health, but earning poor grades is a sure-fire way to break your business. Many business owners fall into the trap of thinking food safety is difficult to track or maintain. They opt for archaic practices that require their staff to spend hours entering data that usually isn’t accurate anyway.
Not only is that a waste of their time, it’s also a waste of your money. That’s where Squizify comes in. Our industry-leading Digital Food Safety and Compliance Software has the power to revolutionize your business, so you can spend more time making money and less time stressing over food safety. But don’t just take our word for it—here are 10 reasons to take the plunge on Squizify’s Digital Food Safety System.
Food Safety
1. First And Foremost—It’s Easy!
Food safety compliance doesn’t have to be hard, and with Squizify, all it takes is a few mouse clicks. Our software has been carefully designed so it’s simple and easy to use, so you don’t have to micromanage staff to make sure it’s being used correctly.
2. Generate Checklists With Just A Few Clicks!
Checklists are a fast and easy way to make sure you’re on top of food safety requirements. That’s why Squizify’s Digital Food Safety System allows you to generate customisable checklists that you can use time and time again.
3. Reports Are Ready In The Blink Of An Eye
With the ability to auto-generate reports, our software completely eliminates the stress of scrambling to find paperwork buried in a file at the back of a cabinet. Data can be quickly and easily cumulated into structured reports that give you an accurate snapshot of your food safety performance, not to mention valuable operational insight.
4. Get Ahead Of Safety Inspections
Food safety inspections are known for being stressful, but they don’t have to be. Our one-touch Council reporting feature ensures you’ll have all the information your inspector requires at just the touch of a button.
5. Accuracy Is Guaranteed
No fudging numbers here! Squizify’s Digital Food Safety System ensures all data is up-to-date and accurate, so there’s no risk of fabricated data. You’ll know for a fact that all tasks have been performed properly, so you can confidently support your data.
6. Go Completely Paperless!
Welcome to the way of tomorrow! Our system is 100% paperless, with cloud-backup functionality so you never lose your valuable data. No need for photocopying or working out where you last left your pen—we are all digital, all the time.
Squizify Dashboard
7. Labelling Is A Breeze
Squizify offers streamlined labelling solutions that ensure your product labels are always accurate and on-brand. Our labelling functionality seamlessly integrates with food safety tracking features, mitigating the risk of human error and incorrect labelling.
8. Maximise Productivity…
By automating almost all of your compliance tasks, our system will free up time that’s usually dedicated to temperature monitoring and data entry. That means you can spend more time managing your business, and less time stressing over safety issues.
In a time where cancel culture runs rife, earning (and keeping) your customers’ trust is no small feat. With Squizify, your customers can rest assured you maintain strict food safety processes by scanning a QR code that links directly to live compliance data.
Want to learn more about what food safety software can do for your business? Get started with Squizify today.
9. …And Minimises Spoilage
Keeping food at safe storage temperatures is a critical component of good food safety practice. By tracking food temperatures through our automated software, your business can cut down on unnecessary spoilage, and ensure your customers always receive a safe meal.
10. Keep Customers On Your Side
In a time where cancel culture runs rife, earning (and keeping) your customers’ trust is no small feat. With Squizify, your customers can rest assured you maintain strict food safety processes by scanning a QR code that links directly to live compliance data.
We know most business owners work hard to ensure they are selling a quality product and an excellent customer experience. However, when it comes to food safety all it takes is a small slip up and it could be all over. If you are caught breaking strict food safety procedures, or even worse if a customer gets sick after consuming food from your restaurant, your business could be shut down faster then you can say ‘salmonella’. Here are 4 small common mistakes that can be costly for a business.
1. Crowding Food In Storage Areas
There are a number of reasons it is important to keep storage areas organised and uncrowded. Firstly, It allows for easier cleaning. Crowded food storage areas tend to be overwhelming and encourage negligence when it comes to cleaning. Crowded fridges can also lead to foods being forgotten and going off which can then lead to the contamination of other products in the same space.
2. Not Sealing Containers Properly
It doesn’t sound like such a big deal but according to Squizify CEO and food safety expert Daniel McDouall, staff not sealing containers properly can lead to serious food safety risks. “If you put a raw product into a room in a container that doesn’t have a lid on it, the bacteria can be transferred to other cooked product. Having sealed containers is critical to avoiding contamination.” Daniel also points out that sealed containers are critical from a pest control point of view. Not only are pests dangerous to customers, if an inspector arrives unannounced and finds any kind of infestation in your venue, you could be shut down instantly.
3. Not Paying Attention To Potentially Hazardous Foods
All staff involved with food handling should be first made aware of potentially hazardous food. According to the Queensland Health website potentially hazardous foods include;
Raw and cooked meat, or foods containing meat such as casseroles, curries and lasagne
Dairy products such as milk, custard and dairy‐based desserts
Seafood (excluding live seafood)
Processed or cut fruits and vegetables, such as salads
Cooked rice and pasta
Foods containing egg, beans, nuts or other protein‐rich food such as quiche and soy products
Foods that contain any of the above foods including sandwiches and rolls
It is important that when it comes to these foods you and your staff pay particularly close attention to how they are stored or prepared. When in doubt, throw it out.
Daniel says when it comes to hazardous foods a key thing is staff awareness and staff training. According to him a Survey done in 2016 indicates that 19.6% of staff members have poor worth ethics and 18.1% has low knowledge or skill level. Daniel says “That exposes 40% of your workforce straight away. There needs to be an emphasis on training starting with the basics and the fundamentals (such as what are hazardous foods) and consistently monitoring and following up with these activities.” This helps to generate better awareness within the staff.
4. Allowing Food Handlers To Use Mobile Phones In The Kitchen
Mobile phones have become an everyday part of our lives. While most people can’t go anywhere without their phone it is important you insist that any food handlers at your business keep their phones away from food prep areas and wash their hands after phone use. Why? It is a little-known fact that mobile phone surfaces are covered in potentially dangerous bacteria. In fact, a recent study found that there are potentially more bacteria on your phone than on a toilet seat [NCBI, 2017]. If you don’t think your customer would appreciate their food being made next to a toilet, then you should probably ban phones from the kitchen and food prep areas.
If you want to be sure you are abiding by all food safety regulations but dread the amount of time and effort needed to make sure your venue is up to code, let Squizify do the hard work for you. To find out how Squizify can help protect your business and give you more time to focus on making sure everything else runs smoothly, make an enquiry via our website today.
Without stating the obvious, the Australian foodservice industry is on their knees at the moment.
The food outlets that are still open are having to dramatically change and adapt the way they run their business in order to survive.
The foodservice industry is no stranger to safety precautions. Activities like handwashing, taking food temperature, and cleansing surfaces are the core components of a foodservice employee’s routine. But in times of uncertainty like an infectious outbreak, these practices will become more important than ever.
Key Focus Areas For Food Businesses
1. Handwashing
Handwashing is the simplest but most effective way to fend off viruses. Businesses should consider increasing handwashing checks to take place several times per hour (even if employees wear gloves while working), and be sure to have a system in place that guarantees employees will adhere. Take extra care for employees who are working the register and drive-thrus, as health officials have expressed concern that exchanging cash and coming in close contact with others can increase the risk of spread.
2. Sanitisation Of Surfaces
Ensure that all surfaces and high-traffic areas remain sanitary. Wipe down countertops, tables, and chairs (even if dine-in service has been suspended), doorknobs (including main entrances if you are offering in-store pickup), railings, and drink dispensers. If your customers are entering the store to pick up orders, ensure that the counters where they grab straws, utensils, napkins, etc are constantly disinfected. In fact, most stores have done away with any area where customers could self-serve, to remove the risk completely.
3. Online Delivery
Businesses are focusing more on online delivery to ensure revenue still comes through the door to keep staff employed and the business open. With this added focus on delivery, it’s critical, more than ever, that business has a system to ensure food is safe. Current food safety systems need to be followed more than ever to accommodate the ‘new world’ the foodservice industry lives in. Ensuring food is kept at the right temperature, the packaging is sealed correctly so drivers don’t contaminate food by helping themselves, contactless delivery (where drivers leave food at the front door rather than hand directly to customers), cashless deliveries (card only) so drivers don’t handle cash etc.
4. Remote Monitoring & Management
An advantage of digital food safety for owners and operators is the ability to check-in and manage all locations remotely, especially as social distancing becomes more important during the emergency. With a digital food safety system like Squizify, owners are able to stay on top of each location and make any necessary spur-of-the-moment decisions backed by data from their actual stores.
As per medical advice, COVID19 can last on the packaging for up to 48 hours. So, it’s more important than ever, especially for customers that are doing the right thing and social distancing at home, that food businesses don’t unknowingly bring this horrible virus to them via food delivery. The foodservice industry has entered the toughest market conditions in living memory. At these times cutting corners can easily happen, however with a fast-spreading infectious disease like COVID19 food safety is one area foodservice businesses need to spend extra attention, ensuring standards are kept extremely high.
The current situation is likely to change, and it can feel overwhelming to keep up with all of the updates and news.
Our Advice is Simple, Foodservice Businesses Need To…
Clearly understand what their food safety systems are and make any necessary changes to ensure staff & customers are protected. Ensure all staff are fully trained and aware of any changes to the current processes. Ensure their delivery channels are doing the right things in relation to staff & customer protection.
The foodservice industry is well-positioned to flourish when we come out of this pandemic, however, if businesses don’t do the right thing now and their brand/restaurant is tarnished by a poor food safety event, even when things get back to normal the long-term damage to these brands will be enormous.
As long as your restaurant is open for business during these times, staff should be supported with the knowledge and assistance they need to keep the environment safe and healthy.
If you have any questions around how Squizify can help through these tough times, please contact us at hello@squizify.com
Daniel
Squizify CEO
If you’re in the business of food, keeping things consistently clean can sometimes feel overwhelming. The bad news is that a mess is inevitable. The good news is that there are a few simple steps you can take to keep things clean with minimum effort. To help you keep your business running at its best, we’ve summarised 6 easy steps you can take to become a cleaner kitchen, which always leads to a happier team and more satisfied clientele—the best kind of win-win situation.
1. Keep Your Kitchen Clutter Free
When it comes to running your food business with ease, organisation is key. To keep your kitchen looking and functioning at its best, make sure all cupboards, storerooms, fridges and drawers are located and stocked in a way that makes the most sense. To improve efficiency, keep small gadgets within reach, utilise easy-to-access shelves and racks for frequently used ingredients, and create designated spaces within your layout, e.g. the prep station, the hot station, and the cleaning station. A well-mapped out and decluttered kitchen is far easier to keep clean and to navigate.
2. Clean As You Go, Not When It’s Too Late
If you work in a busy food business it can be tempting to cast tools to the side to be cleaned up later as you cook and prepare food. But habits such as these can lead to serious headaches at the end of the working day. To maintain a clean and hygienic environment cleaning as you go is paramount. This includes washing and sanitising all utensils straight after use and wiping down bench tops regularly. An unrinsed knife that’s been used to cut raw meat is not only visibly dirty, it’s also covered with invisible bacteria. This is why it’s not hygienic to leave cleaning to the end of the day, instead wash your utensils directly after use.
3. Put Things In Their Place
In order to avoid cross-contamination, it’s important to assign each kitchen utensil its own home. Once you’ve decided where things will go, remember to educate all team members on where different items belong. There’s nothing worse than losing precious prep time while trying to locate a grater because somebody put it back where the rolling pin should be.
4. Take Proper Care Of Cleaning Equipment
You can’t have a clean floor if you are using a dirty mop. To ensure you’re not mopping your way to nowhere, be sure to clean your mops and buckets daily. First, rinse your mop until the water is clean. Then soak your mop in its bucket with hot water and bleach. Wait 10 minutes and rinse your mop again before hanging it out to dry. And remember, never leave a wet mop to dry with its head to the ground. Seems obvious, but it is always worth a mention.
5. Take The Extra Step To Sanitisation
If you work in the food industry keeping all utensils and spaces germ-free is paramount. To keep in line with industry standards you need to be sure that your equipment and all areas of your kitchen are not only rinsed and washed but also sanitised. This includes benches, floors, inside/outside cupboards, under/inside/outside food storage units and windows. To maintain a healthy workplace for food preparation you can sterilise in two different ways: with chemicals or with heat. Applying these extra measures will ensure that your premises is better protected against potential contamination.
6. Let Us Prepare Your Personalised Cleaning Schedule
If you’d do essentially anything to avoid planning a cleaning schedule, we feel you. That’s why we’re here to help. Our tailor-made cleaning schedules make it easy for you to allocate tasks to your staff and ensure everyone is aware of their duties. That means less time worrying about stains and sanitisation and more time with your clientele.
If you run a food business it’s not always easy to determine what you can handle yourself versus what you should outsource. Some things are common sense, like working with reputable suppliers and hiring a team of competent staff. But how should you best handle the task of hiring a Food Safety Supervisor?
Before you can answer that question, it’s important to figure out if you need a Food Safety Supervisor at all, and if so, what role this person will play in your business dynamic. It’s also helpful to understand what exactly (in detail) a Food Safety Supervisor does. Sure, the name gives part of that away, but there’s more to the job title than meets the eye.
So, What Is The Role Of A Food Safety Supervisor?
Simply put, the role of the Food Safety Supervisor is to be aware of all relevant food safety legislation and standards applicable to your business. According to the Australian Institute of Food Safety, duties of the role include, but are not limited to:
Making sure all food handling tasks are carried out safely and properly by monitoring all food handlers.
Recognising, preventing and alleviating all food safety hazards in your food business.
Making sure all food handlers maintain safe, industry standard personal hygiene.
Ensuring that your business’s food safety program is up-to-date, maintained and adhered to by all members of staff.
Being ‘reasonably available’ to your food business and its local council during operating hours.
In order to qualify to carry out the above duties, your Food Safety Supervisor must first complete all required training to receive the necessary statement of attainment or certificate required within your state.
Do I Really Need A Food Safety Supervisor?
At the end of the day, this depends on two things: where your business is located and what type of food it serves. Certain Australian states and territories require all registered food businesses to nominate a qualified Food Safety Supervisor.
Generally speaking, all licensable food businesses must have a Food Safety Supervisor if they serve ready-to-eat food, potentially hazardous foods (e.g. raw and cooked meat), or food that has not been sold or served in its original packaging.
Does My Business’s Food Safety Advisor Need Professional Qualifications?
If you would like to nominate yourself or one of your team members as your Food Safety Supervisor, it’s definitely fine to do so. So long as the individual you assign to the role is qualified. To carry out their duties according to industry standards, your chosen Food Safety Supervisor must hold a a food safety supervisor certificate, the basic requirement to oversee the safe production and service of food.
The general rule is one Food Safety Supervisor per food business. However, some larger and busier businesses—especially those that operate around the clock—often choose to employ more than one. The most important rule to remember is: your Food Safety Supervisor must be reasonably available at all times. So if your establishment operates 24/7, employing or nominating more than one qualified Supervisor may be necessary.
Will My Food Safety Supervisor Be Able To Better Prepare My Business For Food Safety Inspections?
It’s natural to not look forward to food safety inspections. With so much to keep track of, it’s understandable to feel nervous about steps you might have missed. However, if your business has a confident and capable Food Safety Supervisor regularly overseeing all orders of proceeding, food safety inspections are generally a breeze. A fully qualified Food Safety Supervisor will make sure that your premises is always properly cleaned, that food is stored appropriately, and that the personal hygiene of your food handlers is up to industry standard.
Most business owners don’t look forward to food safety inspections. However, you should not have anything to worry about if you are following the minimum food safety requirements.
All businesses that handle food are required to undergo semi regular food safety inspections. This is in the interest of the public’s health to ensure no one is consuming potentially harmful food. Here is key information that every company needs to know about food safety inspections.
What Can I Expect From A Food Safety Inspection?
On the day of the inspection, you will meet an Environmental Health Officer (EHO), who will be conducting the inspection. They will check that the premises are properly cleaned, food is stored appropriately, the personal hygiene of food handlers is up to scratch, and all temperatures are controlled to meet standards. The EHO will inspect both the back and front of house. They may also search for any signs of pests, unsanitary surfaces and incorrect storing of potentially hazardous foods.
How Can I Prepare For A Food Safety Inspection?
Reading this article is a great first step in preparing yourself for an upcoming inspection, but you will need to ensure your restaurant is fully equipped before it is ready for the test. To prepare your store, you should have cleaning checklists & guides, history of cleaning & temperatures, food audit checklists and most importantly a functioning temperature monitoring system.
The easiest way to make sure all these areas are covered is with Squizify. We provide outstanding food safety temperature monitoring technology. Our Bluetooth Temperature Probes provide real-time reports and logs. This makes providing temperature history during your next inspection super easy. SQUIZIFY also provides food safety and compliance checklists, cleaning guides and food audit checklists. We can customise checklists to suit each store and identify critical and non-critical task types. This ensures maximum efficiency so that the important tasks are carried out first.
Using SQUIZIFY will benefit your business greatly, not only to keep you up to date with the latest food safety standards but also helping you to be prepared for an inspection at any given time. All you need to do is show them our system.
4 Common Mistakes To Avoid
Equipment – all equipment must be cleaned and sanitised after use and organised in appropriate areas.
Storage – food must be stored appropriately in secure containers labelled with the use by date.
Everything must be cleaned! – this includes benches, floors, inside/outside cupboards, under/inside/outside food storage units and windows.
Vents, Drains & Sinks – all of these need to be clean and in working condition.
Additional Ways To Really Succeed In Your Health And Safety Audit
Ensure the business looks spick and span from the outside and inside
Ask the inspector for feedback – ways to improve the businesses current procedures.
Comply with the inspector as much as possible
Engage with staff – everyone should understand the importance of food safety
For more specific information on food safety inspections, you should refer to your local government’s website.
