Is More Delivery/Takeout on Your Menu? Remove Food Safety Risks—Digitally

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S., a multi-site restaurant operator with more than 200 locations that was shifting to takeout only decided to evaluate its already robust food safety system.

The company had installed sensors to monitor its 700+ refrigeration units and flag food temperature “incidents” in real time. Doing some forensics into their records, management realized that over a five-month period they had received over 14,000 alerts to potential problems. These alerts had surfaced more than 3,500 potential incidents, spread across almost every location. But the incidents never compromised customers’ safety because the restaurants were able to discover and remediate them in real time.

As other restaurant operators emerge from the worst of the pandemic, amp up their takeout and delivery businesses, and participate in ghost kitchens, they may want to borrow a page from this company’s playbook. As meals are prepared, transported and occasionally reheated in…