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Restaurant Daily News Monday, May 20, 2019 2 2 How Food Safety Technology Can Make Labor Management Easier Traditionally, employees have been the weakest links in food safety at most restaurants. Even well-intentioned work- ers make mistakes, and foodservice is an industry where isolated incidents can quickly mushroom into nationwide or global PR disasters. A food safety incident in one location means diners everywhere will stop visiting; as a result, errors, fail- ures or malfeasance by even entry-level, minimum-wage workers can have an out- sized impact on the bottom-line. When labor goes wrong – whether through fraudulent activity, human error, inadequate training or some other form of mismanagement – it has business ramifi- cations that affect the entire organization. How can brands make sure that the min- imum-wage worker does his job so that the food safety incident never happens in the first place? Food safety technology has the answer. Technology enforces accountability at the individual and store level. When it comes to checklists, for exam- ple, a smart system can impose con- straints on users and alert their leaders when those constraints are breached. For example, the restaurant can set a custom timeframe for each checklist to be com- pleted; if the checklist scheduled for noon doesn't get completed within 60 minutes, it alerts management. Technology puts an automatic spotlight on areas requiring review. Similarly, a smart system can analyze checklist entries for accuracy and ensure they meet expected thresholds. For instance, if one checklist should take about five minutes to complete but one worker completes it in three minutes, the system can alert managers. Maybe that employee figured out a way to complete the checklist in a more efficient way, a process that could be replicated at other stores, or maybe they're trying to cheat the system and need review. Technology can correct worker errors and help train staff. Employees don't always follow food safety policies and procedures. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of food manufac- turers and processors told industry ana- lysts at Alchemy Systems that not all their employees adhere to their food safe- ty programs. A digital food safety system can protect against non-compliance. First, it can automate many functions – reading temperatures from remote sen- sors automatically – to remove humans, and thus human errors, from the process. Second, digital food safety can provide guidance, corrective actions and helpful prompts from the employ- ee's handheld device when- ever issues arise. Technology can help control labor costs. The cost of labor relative to revenue can be a major con- tributor to unnecessarily thin profit margins in the industry. According to point-of-sale technology provider Toast, the average restaurant sales per full-time equivalent (FTE), non- supervisory employee in 2015 was $56,000 (compared to $226,000 per gro- cery store worker). Automating certain food safety functions and streamlining the rest can free hours of time for work- ers and managers to focus instead on rev- enue-generating activities and front-of- the-house concerns. For more information, visit booth #9442, go to www.compliancemate.com, call 678.526.4628 or email info@ compliancemate.com. SuperSorb CarbonPad and Supersorb F-23LV from Filtercorp Filtercorp's patented SuperSorb ® CarbonPad has been proven to perform in top foodservice operations, consistently out-performing other types of frying oil filtration media. The SuperSorb CarbonPad extends the useful life of frying oil by trapping damaging particles 500 times smaller than a grain of sand. Among the benefits are less oil usage, less oil change outs, cleaner oil, greater savings and more consistent food quality. Food products cooked in clean oil cook faster, absorb less oil and have a crisper texture. Simply drop a SuperSorb CarbonPad into your fryer filter and start enjoying the benefits of cleaner oil. In 2018, Filtercorp introduced its newest patented technology: the SuperSorb F-23LV. It is the high-volume filter for your low- volume fryer. Filtercorp's new fry oil fil- ter is the next-generation of its SuperSorb CarbonPad. The Supersorb F-23LV has a pleated pre-filter stitched on top to col- lect the larger food debris. This technolo- gy enables the filter to be even more efficient, result- ing in a two filters-in-one system that has all the advantages of the SuperSorb CarbonPad. The proof is in the prof- its and the taste. At Filtercorp, "filtration is what we do, and people are why we do it." Visit Filtercorp at booth #10730. For more information, go to www.filtercorp.com. Plastic Straw Bans – Where Do You Turn? By Michele Moran, Director of Marketing and New Product Development, Hoffmaster Group, Inc. Aardvark paper straws are by far the most environmentally-friendly option and are marine friendly, naturally degrad- able, FDA/EU compliant and com- postable. It is important to note that some brands use harmful chemicals when man- ufacturing the straw in order to overcome complaints that the paper straws become soggy too quickly or the color of the paper leaches into the drinks. Aardvark uses no harmful chemicals in manufac- turing, and the colors will not leach into your drink. Turning away from plastic straws is unquestionably better for the environ- ment. Paper straws aren't the only alter- native out there, but there is no getting around it: PLA straws pollute the same way plastics do. PLA stands for polylac- tic acid, which is made from renewable resources such as sugarcane or corn starch. Naturally, one would assume that since PLA straws are derived from natu- ral ingredients that they are better for the environment. However, this is not always the case and can often be mis- leading. The issue with PLA straws is that people think they are buying and using an environmentally-friendly product. Although PLA is biodegradable, PLA straws and other PLA products become another form of plas- tic that will take years to break down in land- fills and the ocean. PLA straws need to be composted under specific conditions to degrade, and sev- eral areas don't have common facilities to compost PLA-based products, forc- ing them to end up in landfills. PLA and bioplastics can only break down when all oxygen is removed and temperatures are constantly above 140 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 10 days. There are very few places in the world that meet these conditions, and when these materials do break down, they still leave behind a harmful residue of "plastic soup" micro particles that pollute the environment and threat- en life at the bottom of the food chain. PLA straws are not marine degradable, and when they make their way into the waterways and oceans, they act like regular plastic – when they're con- sumed by marine wildlife and fish, that can endanger or kill them. Humans as well are at risk via the potentially dead- ly toxins that become concentrated in the seafood we eat. For more information, visit booth #2788, go to www.hoffmaster.com or www .aardvarkstraws.com, email marketing@ hoffmaster.com or call 800.327.9774. Benefits of the SKECHERS Direct Corporate Shoe Program Are you tired of costly slip-and-falls? Are you frustrated with your current shoe program? The SKECHERS Direct Corporate Shoe Program is the answer. This program is cost-free with no mini- mum purchasing requirements or setup fees – your employees buy direct from SKECHERS and save. SKECHERS will put together a cus- tom ecommerce site and will customize the selection based on your company's uniform policy. Your employees can pur- chase shoes online with free shipping and free returns or by shopping at any of the 500-plus SKECHERS retail stores in the United States and Canada. "This cost-free program has some incredible benefits and will provide your employees with a substantial discount on safe, comfortable and durable trend-right footwear resulting in improved worker safety, morale and overall efficiency," says Harold Surabian, National Sales Manager. The SKECHERS Direct program is available to companies with 200 or more employees and who are based in the United States or Canada. The program offers employees a year-round 30 per- cent discount on SKECHERS slip- resistant work shoes and corporate casual styles. All of the SKECHERS slip-resis- tant shoes are ASTM Mark II tested to meet or exceed a coefficient of friction of 0.50 or greater. Included in the program is SKECH- ERS $5,000 Slip and Fall Warranty that helps protect your company from costly slip-and-falls. In addition, employees will benefit from SKECHERS Quarterly Friends and Family Days events on shoes for the entire family, including kids' shoes, walking shoes, running shoes and even golf shoes (30 percent off on over 3,000 great styles). Should you choose to participate, you may also offer your employees a pay- roll deduction program for their shoe pur- chases, which would enable them to spread the cost of their shoes over multi- ple paychecks. This part of the program is entirely optional for the employer, and you need not offer a payroll deduction plan to enable your employees to enjoy all the other benefits of the SKECHERS Direct Corporate Shoe Program. For more information, visit the SKECH- ERS Direct Booth in the South Hall at booth #3126. After the show, call Harold Surabian at 310.318.3100, ext. 1860 or email haroldsu@skechers.com.