Keeping up with International hygiene and food safety standards within your establishment is crucial for any operator in the F&B market within the UAE. These factors can not only affect guest satisfaction but also employee practices in the workplace and we spoke to Sandeep Krishan, general manager, The Yellow Chilli, on their experience in the food safety and hygiene segment after bringing the services of Boecker on board, earlier this year.
Tell us about your restaurant.
The Yellow Chilli is a casual Indian dining chain, that has different branches across India, USA and UAE. Since its inception in 2001, by MasterChef Sanjeev Kapoor, the restaurant distinguished itself by its touch of minimalism that is as exclusive as its name. The Yellow Chilli takes pride in offering exquisite Indian cuisine to all the customers, with differences drawn from the North-Western frontier cuisine, with exotic picks from the regions of Punjab and the Mughal era.
Why did you choose Boecker as your food safety and hygiene partner?
As part of the management’s commitment to provide the best quality food and service to our customers, Yellow Chilli partnered with Boecker this year, to implement their signature certification programme, The Q-Platinum Award (QPA) as our Food Safety Management System. We have chosen Boecker because of their reputation in the market as a reliable and trustful public health partner. They are catering to our pest management and food safety needs in the best way possible.
What benefits have you seen since implementing QPA Boecker programme?
The QPA programme is an international food safety certification, assured by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, UK, that is tailored for SMEs and is easy to implement. The programme provides a year-round support and control over the food preparation workflow in our outlets.
Since the implementation of the QPA programme, we have noticed a clear increase in the level of commitment to food safety and best hygiene practices not only by our management, but our food handlers too. The programme has helped us enhance our documentation filing, evaluate skills developments of our staff while fostering food safety culture, and making sure that we are compliant with national and international food safety laws and regulations. Furthermore, we have seen an increase in the level of commitment from all the outlets towards achieving high scores to get the certification which has led to nurture a healthy competition spirit between team members.
What are the biggest challenges in sanitation and food safety within a restaurant?
The Yellow Chilli takes food safety and sanitation very seriously, they are of paramount importance for a restaurant’s success. Keeping our customers healthy is a key component of keeping them happy.
Whenever there is food, there is a high risk of having unwanted pests, and as a restaurant operator we have a clear strategy in place for dealing with them. Another challenge is the knowledge of the employees and how they willing to follow the food safety regulations. That’s why fostering a culture of food safety is so important, rules without reason do not get followed. Through the QPA certification, our staff has built a solid ground in the world of food safety.
How does Boecker help overcome these challenges?
In the beginning, a gap analysis was conducted to assess compliance of our food safety system and hygiene standards with international standards, then the food safety consultant highlighted the missing elements required to be fully compliant with national and international standards and the needed corrective measures. In addition, Boecker trained our staff on the best food safety and hygiene practices with a food safety consultant to follow up with us regularly through audits and reports making sure that outlets are implementing the highest international standards of food safety.
Which Boecker services would you recommend and why?
The Yellow Chilli highly recommends the QPA programme and Boecker Integrated Pest Management services as both services combined have provided us with peace of mind and has helped protect our business by providing quality solutions at every stage.
Tell us about your experience with Boecker.
The yellow chill trusts Boecker as a partner for all our public health needs. We have built a strong relationship with the team and we are happy with the level of commitment, quick response, and excellent customer service experience they have been providing us.
