A strong food safety culture reaps benefits for restaurant brands that extend well beyond customer safety and risk mitigation, including driving brand preference and enhancing the overall customer experience.
To recognize and celebrate outstanding efforts in this area, FastCasual.com, a leading online publication serving the B2B fast casual restaurant industry, partnered with Bloodhound Group client Steritech, the premier provider in third-party food safety assessments, to create the Fast Casual Excellence in Food Safety Awards.
Steritech reached out to The Bloodhound Group to conduct independent, third-party interviews with a select group of semifinalist nominees as part of the finalist selection process. The winner: Five Guys Burgers & Fries, based in Lorton, Virginia. Honorable Mentions went to Vitality Bowls, San Ramon, California, and Chicken Salad Chick, Auburn, Alabama.
Choosing the award winners
FastCasual.com asked its readers to nominate fast casual restaurant brands (including themselves), providing information about their food safety programs and efforts. The Bloodhound Group interviewed and qualified nominees using criteria Steritech has identified as the pillars of food safety. These key assessment dimensions, which Steritech endorses and assists clients in implementing, are:
- Leadership commitment
- Training
- Communications
- Program oversight
- Defined KPIs
- Positive recognition
- Results
- Innovation
The awards were presented by Doug Sutton, president of Steritech, in an awards ceremony at the Top 100 event in Chicago.