Customer safety should always be in the forefront of your mind, especially for those working in the hospitality industry. You have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that your staff are properly trained to reduce the risk of your customers getting injured or falling prey to food related illnesses. This is why food safety compliance is so important.
Here are some of the ways that food safety compliance can benefit not only your customers and guests, but your staff as well.
Reputation Matters
Let’s face it, a reputation can make or break a business. In the hospitality industry where the demand for quality service is high, and the competition is even higher, your reputation matters.
Food Poisoning
One of the biggest concerns with food safety is the possibility of food poisoning or cross-contamination. Your employees should be aware of how food can become contaminated and the proper precautions to ensure that this is kept to a minimum. Food poisoning is a serious illness and should be approached as such. Ensuring that your employees are fully compliant is a must to guarantee the safety of both your customers and staff.
Allergies
Food allergies, like food poisoning, can result in serious illnesses and sometimes even result in fatalities. It’s your duty to provide the proper measures to guarantee the safety of your customers – ensuring your employees are aware of the proper procedures when it comes to allergies. For example, waiters when taking orders should ask if customers are allergic to any particular foods or ingredients. This pre-emptive discussion will help you to provide assistance to those who do in fact have a food allergy.
Your Efforts Will Be Recognised
When a customer notices that you go the extra mile and care about both their safety and the quality of your service, they will be much more likely to return and even suggest your business to friends and family. However, the same goes for the other way around too. We’ve all heard horror stories of people warning others from visiting businesses with poor food safety. Ensuring that your business takes the correct measures to provide your employees with food safety compliance is key to keeping your reputation, and your standards, high.
Employees Will Be More Effective
Compliance Improves Quality and Efficiency
Food safety compliance will ultimately result in your workforce being much more effective and efficient overall – reducing waste, improving quality and ensuring that standards are kept high. Not only that, but this compliancy will also help to raise your reputation as a deliverer of high-quality food and service.
Your Workforce Will Be Better Prepared
As your staff are the ones that will be preparing, cooking and serving the food, it’s important that employees at any part of this service chain are properly trained to ensure that food safety and hygiene are kept to a high standard. This will ensure that both your customers and employees will be safe guarded against any possible hazards or risks that could otherwise occur.
Legal Requirements
In most countries it’s often a legal requirement that anyone handling food to have undergone food safety compliance training. Failing to do so can often hold some dangers and risks for you and your business.
Certification
Taking part in a certified food safety compliance course will result in you receiving a certificate covering you for a set amount of time. You’ll also gain a better understanding of what the dangers and risks of poor food safety can be, and the necessary precautions to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
The Dangers of Noncompliance
If you are noncompliant with any food safety law, you could find yourself being fined. Or, in some serious cases, you could be forced to shut down your business either temporarily or for permanently. Other than the previous penalties, should a customer be harmed by any failings in your food safety compliance, you could also face lawsuits or other legal ramifications that could seriously damage your business.
That’s why food safety compliance is so important in the hospitality industry. After all, we’re an industry that serves people – so, ensuring that the proper precautions and training takes place to guarantee their safety is a must.
Did you find this exploration into food safety compliance helpful? If you think we left anything out tweet us and let us know what other ways food safety can leave positive impact. Or, check out one of our previous blogs to see how Innform compliance courses are revolutionising hospitality training.
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