IN SAFE HANDS


The cost to your business in terms of reputation and penalties means it is critical to take food safety seriously. Fortunately, there is software to help, says Rosalind Mullen


ing foul of the law incur loss of business, cost and damage to reputation, but as shown by the necessity of Natasha’s Law, any mistakes could lead to loss of life. Updated laws also mean you could incur hefty fines and even imprisonment (see panel). Incidents can be trig-


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gered by any number of failures – from employees not washing their hands or cleaning down equipment thoroughly to stor- ing ingredients at the wrong temper- ature or improperly labelling food. So it’s no wonder that opera- tors increasingly turn to food safety software, which can automate checks, record and set food temperatures, set clean- ing and maintenance schedules with man- ager sign-offs, get equipment failure alerts and more – often all from one app. Champa Magesh, managing director of technology company Access Hospitality, says: “Food safety technology ensures that proce- dures are followed correctly to provide consis- tency, compliance and accountability, giving no room for error. Maintaining the required standards and empowering staff to follow approved processes gives everyone peace


28 | Technology Prospectus 2024


nyone in the catering industry worth their salt knows about food safety and allergen awareness. Not only does fall-


of mind that guest and employee welfare is a top priority without having to spend time on extensive manual checks.” John Barnes, director of consultancy at Enmoore and the former head of the Food Stan- dards Agency’ (FSA) Local Delivery Division, agrees that technology can streamline food safety procedures: “Businesses are increasingly being asked to demonstrate their com- pliance with food safety requirements, and sentencing guide- lines introduced in 2016 now advise fines should reflect turnover [so a big chain could pay millions] and that puts increasing pressure on busi- nesses to demon- strate that they have put in place the right controls and taken all due diligence. That is where new technology


becomes really useful,” he says. DETECTIVE WORK


FSA research shows there are about 2.4 mil- lion cases of foodborne illness in the UK a year, but incidents are stable. What has changed is that the FSA has more robust methods of investigating incidents, and consum- ers – particularly since Covid – have height- ened awareness and higher expectations of cleanliness and food safety. “Whole genome sequencing, which the FSA


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