Restaurant Associates

It is now over a decade since Baxter and Platts first approached In House to help them achieve and maintain the high cleaning standards necessary in their restaurants. During this time, In House food safety advisors have visited Baxter and Platts catering sites every quarter. On each visit, BIOSCANNING hygiene monitoring has been carried out on a variety of food and hand contact surfaces, to test standards of cleaning. A report is always left with the manager or head chef, for immediate action and advice is given during the visit to help achieve improvements where required.

This commitment to maintaining and monitoring standards of cleanliness has ensured an ongoing level of excellence, as Operations Director Nigel Scott can testify:

"We were delighted to find out that our 2003 BIOSCANNING pass rate of 84% again put Baxter and Platts at the top of all In House multi-site customers throughout the UK. That makes three years in a row!".

New Improved Service

But, believing that there is always room for improvement, early in 2004 In House and Baxter and Platts reviewed the service. The outcome was to add to the number of aspects of food safety that are independently checked on each visit.

"Baxter and Platts sites have achieved excellent cleaning standards" confirmed Hazel Bourne, Senior Hygiene Advisor for In House.

"On each visit we now check temperatures and records, to make sure food is always under temperature control. We also assess personal hygiene practices, and take two hand swabs, to look at hand washing procedures. We watch the chefs at work, and help the staff to reduce food safety risks, such as cross contamination, food being left in the danger zone, keeping food for too long and so on. And of course we still carry out BIOSCANNING tests to show how good their cleaning really is!".

Copies of the report are sent to Operations Managers with comments and actions required. This helps ensure staff at each restaurant make the necessary improvements to ensure a high standard of food safety.

BANQUE PARIBAS - A Baxter & Platts restaurant In House started the service to ‘Banque Paribas’ in 1999. This busy kitchen faced some early challenges, but the team worked hard, and on their last visit achieved 93% for their kitchen BIOSCANNING results.

Catering staff at this site make a real effort to use the information provided by In House. Reports are always discussed with head chef Marco, to try and find solutions to any problems found.

Space is very restricted and there is a high level of food production, so effective cleaning is vital to ensure food safety and reduce the risk of cross contamination. Other good practices include a separate sandwich and salad prep area - away from the area where raw meat is prepared.

Unannounced visits

Nick Nunn, Catering Manager at Baxter and Platts site Banque Paribas said:

"Knowing that In House could turn up unannounced at any time keeps the staff on their toes...!"