Did you know?
Over 8% of employees' health insurance claims are from digestive disorders!
A corporate employee on average consumes a majority of his meals in his entire career in the corporate cafeteria! And an unhygienic cafeteria can lead to multiple health issues.
In this era, taste plays the most pivotal role in deciding the user’s preferences, however, what is surprising is that cafeteria Hygiene is often neglected. This hygiene starts right from the kitchen and all the way until the food is served. There are many reasons why this happens among which, low budgets and no proper training top the charts.
Chef preparing food with precautionary measures.
Ensuring food safety and hygiene is an extremely challenging task because of the highly discounted pricing structure of most caterers and thus having to operate with very thin profit margins. This, in turn, leads them to cut corners and costs to increase their profitability. It is often noticed that under the great urge of cutting costs, the catering business owners cut down activities that are extremely essential for food safety like regular pest control, regular health check of food handlers, hand sanitization, the right storage and cleaning practices.
Chefs, kitchen staff, and servers can also carry pathogens internally and on their hands, skin, and hair. It is imperative that they follow and understand basic food protection practices and maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and good sanitation practices to prevent food product contamination. Unless they understand and follow basic food protection principles, they may unintentionally contaminate food packaging, water, and other workers, thereby creating the opportunity to transmit foodborne illness.
Here are a few precautionary measures the admins can take,
1. Timely pest control at the cafeteria.
2. Well-trained housekeeping staff.
3. Ensuring the cafeteria layout is spacious for movement.
4. Facilities need to be provided for washing utensils, including a sink and draining board.
Furthermore, companies like SmartQ do kitchen visits on an everyday basis and conduct multiple hygiene workshops with vendors helping them improve their hygiene quotient and act as a right hand to the corporate admins assisting them in choosing the right compliant vendor to serve at their cafeteria.
Cafeteria and kitchen hygiene is an absolute must and SmartQ in collaboration with the corporates is taking big strides in achieving the same.