What It Really Takes to Keep Food Safe at Corporate Cafeterias?
- Vanshika
- Aug 11
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 10
For companies that care deeply about people and performance, food safety cannot be an afterthought. It’s not just about clean kitchens—it's about building trust, every single day through safe & consistent food service.
Strong food compliance goes beyond licenses on paper. It’s a system that protects employee health, upholds workplace standards, and ensures operational transparency across every meal served.
To ensure clear communication and clarity, we follow and recommend a simple framework, ATC (no, no, not the Air Traffic Control). Here, by ATC, we mean, Audits, Trainings, and Compliance.
Now that you know the framework, let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s start with its foundation:
Compliance
In a workplace cafeteria, compliance isn’t just a box to tick — it’s what builds trust. Compliance is the foundation for safety. When employees see that hygiene and food safety are held to the highest standards, it creates confidence not just in the food, but in the company’s commitment to their well-being. Here’s a quick list of all the compliance requirements at a workplace cafeteria:
FSSAI License (Mandatory for all food business operators)
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) license applies to anyone involved in preparing, storing, distributing, or serving food. Based on your scale, you may need:
A. Basic registration
B. State license
C. Central license
Acquiring this license ensures compliance with national food safety laws. Operating without it can lead to fines or business shutdown. Click here to apply for FSSAI license.
Trade License (Issued by local municipalities)
This license allows your unit to operate legally within the city or district jurisdiction. It's granted by your respective Municipal Corporation. Key benefits:
A. Validates your location and business operations
B. Confirms you meet sanitation and public safety norms
Shops and Establishment License (State-specific)
Every city or state in India has a Shops and Establishments Act that mandates this registration for businesses with employees. It regulates:
A. Working hours
B. Leave policies and holidays
C. Minimum wage compliance
D. Workplace safety and facilities
E. Register through your State Labour Department portal.
Apart from these licenses, there is also a need for ISO 22000/9000 certification, food-grade certification, water and food test reports, equipment calibration certificates, oil declaration certificates, and records of food storage and cooking temperatures.
With this strong foundation of compliance in place, the next step is equipping our people through the right training. Let’s take a look.
Trainings
Safety isn’t just a protocol. It’s a mindset. While checklists and SOPs are crucial, it’s the people on the ground who bring them to life. That’s why we invest in ongoing training for all vendor staff, from live counter chefs to vending operators and pantry teams. Empowered teams ensure safe and consistent experiences every single day. Here are five essential trainings every workplace cafeteria should conduct:
FOSTAC (Food Safety Training and Certification)
Government-certified training to ensure staff understand and follow FSSAI food safety standards.
Workplace Hygiene & Sanitation
Teaches best practices for personal hygiene and maintaining a clean food-handling environment.
Fire & Work Safety Handling
Equips staff to handle kitchen hazards, fire safety equipment, and emergency protocols.
COVID-19 Response Protocols
Covers hygiene, social distancing, and safety SOPs to prevent virus transmission at food touchpoints.
External Food Safety Workshops
Sessions by accredited experts to keep teams updated on evolving food safety trends and practices.
In addition, all food handlers must undergo periodic Medical Fitness Tests, a basic but essential step often skipped. It includes blood and skin tests to ensure no communicable diseases are transmitted through food.
For SmartQ, food safety isn’t just a checkbox we tick once. We work closely with vendor partners offering handholding, process training, and hygiene benchmarking so they meet industry standards.
By uplifting vendor partner capabilities, we don’t just meet compliance, we raise it through safe and empowered actions on the ground. Because safety isn’t just a protocol. It’s a mindset.
Audits
Audits are not just a checklist; they reflect a commitment to consistency. Regular food safety audits signal a proactive culture - one that prioritises employee well-being and operational excellence. When integrated into daily processes, they serve as a system of accountability, helping maintain high standards of hygiene, safety, and trust at all times.
Here’s how you can approach audits in a structured, ongoing way:
Daily Practices
A. Maintain temperature logs for all cold and hot food storage units.
B. Check staff hygiene: gloves, aprons, hairnets, and trimmed nails.
C. Record food tasting samples and track daily wastage.
Weekly Practices
A. Deep clean pantry equipment and high-touch surfaces.
B. Review raw material storage for FIFO compliance and labelling.
Monthly & Surprise Audits
A. Ensure pest control reports are up-to-date.
B. Rate vendor kitchens on hygiene and SOP adherence.
C. Run incident response drills for mock contamination events.
➡️ Download our Food Safety Audit Cheatsheet
Use this handy cheat sheet to run your daily café audits with ease. While this covers the basics, at SmartQ, we follow a far more detailed and rigorous audit process to ensure every standard is met — and exceeded. Food safety is often a silent stressor in workplaces—every complaint, every slip-up, every audit finding eventually lands on the admin’s desk. By following the above-mentioned process or by partnering with SmarQ, that pressure is lifted.
SmartQ’s integrated approach of compliance, training, and audits ensures cafeterias run at 100% compliance without constant oversight. Admins gain peace of mind knowing food safety is being proactively managed, issues are tracked with immediate RCA (Root Cause Analysis), and corrective actions are closed quickly. The result? Fewer employee complaints, smoother cafeteria operations, and complete confidence that food safety is never slipping through the cracks.
Now that you know what it takes to set up corporate cafeterias the right way, ask yourself,
“Is managing vendors eating up your time and energy?”
From juggling multiple partners to ensuring quality and compliance every single day, it’s far from simple. If that seems familiar, the next blog is for you.