As a specialist in Food Safety legislation compliance, we are committed to showing how Food Safety compliance can provide commercial kitchens with additional financial benefits and consumer satisfaction.
When it comes to restaurants and cafes, there are many factors that determine just how successful they will be. Great food, good customer service, a convenient location and a relaxed atmosphere are all important, but those factors aren’t necessarily plain to see for potential first-time customers. As the number of options increases, people are becoming more and more reliant on rankings and statistics when making their dining choices.
When people first walk up to a restaurant, there are typically two things they consider before making a decision about whether or not to ask for a table:
- the menu
- the health inspection rating.
While it is fundamentally up to the restaurant to market its menus as appealing, Food Safety legislation compliance will play a key role in earning top marks from health inspectors.
So why do the ratings matter?
Diners expect their preferred restaurants to maintain the best procedures for food safety, cleanliness and hygiene. A customer’s perception about the cleanliness of a dining establishment used to be through their own experiences and word of mouth but that is changing, social media and review websites, as well as ongoing initiatives from Food Safety Organisations around the world and in the UK are putting restaurant and cafe grades out front for increased consumer visibility.
Restaurants now have to prominently display the results of their health and food safety inspections. While this was not obligatory in England until 2019 it is compulsory in Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland, where by law, all food-serving premises must display a sticker showing their rating in a visible place to “all entrances to the premises”.
Proper food hygiene records are essential for restaurants looking to improve safety scores.
By openly posting results, it is widely considered that restaurants and cafes with high grades are perceived as more reliable and will therefore see an increase in their number of customers.
The UK Food Standards Agency, for instance, states on its website:
“Putting a hygiene rating on show is a good advertisement for businesses that meet the requirements of food hygiene law. A good food hygiene rating is good for business.”
Another major example is a study conducted on restaurants in Los Angeles, which provided some compelling evidence to support this claim. Professor Phillip Leslie, an economist at Stanford University, examined the relationship between revenue and health inspection grades – which must be publicly displayed – in Los Angeles restaurants.
The findings, as reported by The Economist, showed that the displayed grades certainly affected where diners chose to order their meals – restaurants with a C grade saw a 1 per cent decrease in revenue, while those with a B and A saw increases of 0.7 and 5.7 per cent, respectively. The 5 per cent jump in revenue increases between B-rated and A-rated restaurants crucially demonstrates that scores do carry weight with consumers. This is therefore proving to have a real impact on the financial success of different eateries.
How can restaurants increase their scores?
Overall cleanliness and safe food handling and storage procedures are vital areas of focus for any restaurant. Common issues within restaurants include:
- A lack of adequate cover for stored food.
- Hand-washing areas that are not up to standards.
- Issues with pests.
- Unclean food equipment and preparing locations.
- Ensuring that food is kept at proper temperatures.
How can Food Safe System help?
Food Safety legislation compliance is essential for restaurants looking to improve safety scores and customer confidence.
Protect your hygiene rating and profits.
Comply with Food Safety legislation, quicker, easier and cheaper than ever before.
Food Safe System is a digital record keeping app designed exclusively for the hospitality industry.
Food Safe System replaces your current Food Safety compliance paperwork with a quicker, easier & more efficient process using smartphone technology, wireless sensors and cloud computing.
Gone are the days of greasy files, missing records and false information, Food Safe System will remind you, or whoever you want in your kitchen, at a time you want, to carry out periodical checks such as you fridge temps and hygiene inspections, you can check and record your deliveries and have a record of all required staff training.
All your information is securely stored and easily accessed through our app. Each check carried out is time stamped and location enabled ensuring no misinformation is being added.
