Chomp blog

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of food poisoning in the developed world.(1) According to the Public Health Surveillance Report there was an increase in campylobacter in 2016, the most commonly reported illness in New Zealand.(2) Many food poisoning cases in New Zealand are associated with a cafe or restaurant, which can have a dramatic financial impact on the business.

Let’s cut right to the chase. Running a business is expensive. Running it well, safely and with the welfare of your customers and staff at heart, is even more so. But what if a piece of software could reduce your costs while helping you grow and protecting your reputation?

Food businesses love cooking with gas. It’s fast, there’s no energy wasted getting to the right temperature, and you’re in total control across every element simultaneously. So how come some food business operators still aren’t applying those benefits to their Food Control Plan (FCP) management?

Reputation in hospitality is like a tall tree – it can take years to grow, and yet it can also be cut down in a day with a food poisoning incident and the public fallout from it. Creating a culture of food safety is part of growing a strong, resilient tree from the roots up.

Long nights slaving over a hot… pile of paperwork. It’s a big job monitoring food safety records to make sure they’re complete, accurate and up-to-date. And more venues mean more work, extra travel time and greater potential for snafus.

For hospitality business owners, especially those managing multiple venues, a key challenge is keeping control and an overview of your kitchens’ paper based Food Control Plans (FCPs). With this lack of oversight comes the risk of food safety issues, which can seriously damage your brand reputation and your bottom line.

By now you are all set with the weapon of a Food Control Plan - your strategy of compliance is in place! Congratulations! But what if it’s not implemented? Have you ever tried to stick to a diet and days later found yourself spoon deep in that Ben and Jerry’s? The intention was there, right?

The Food Act 2014 has created uncertainty for many hospitality businesses. It’s not enough to just have safe food practices anymore - recording your food control tasks and actions, and getting through your audit just got a whole lot trickier!

It’s argued that ‘food deemed unsafe is more detrimental to brand image than food deemed lower quality’. No customer wants to get sick from eating at your place. So when a food outlet is seen to be risking customer safety, it’s not easily forgiven or forgotten. 

In an industry where your restaurant’s reputation is everything, the last thing you want is for it to be damaged. A recent article in The Western Australian shows just how easy it is for your restaurant’s reputation to go sour. This was the case for a Nando’s store, basking in the glow of a celebrity visit one moment and then disgraced on a health department website the next.