Be aware but not alarmed, is the message to Australia’s foodservice industry as the swine flu threat builds overseas.
Foodservice industry consultant Ken Burgin of Profitable Hospitality said foodservice operators should be thinking bout the implications to their business if swine flu did become a problem in Australia and should take a hard look at the risk management systems they have in place.
“We need to be like ducks on the pond,” Burgin said. “Floating calmly on the surface but paddling fast underwater.”
Burgin said issues for operators to consider include how they would manage service and production if a large number of staff were away ill, how to reassure customers that everything is okay, how to manage staff levels if customer number dropped suddenly, and whether their food safety policies are reflected in the daily operation of the business.
“More than ever people will look for sparkling clean premises and faultless food handling,” he said. “If they look in the kitchen is the hygiene impressive?
Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive officer John Hart also emphasised that while restaurants and caterers in Australia should not be alarmed it was a good time to review their risk management systems and also their hygiene procedures.
Hart said that if swine flu did make it to Australia it would bring several challenges for the industry from coping with a loss of staff to illness, and the reduced numbers of patrons as people stayed at home, to ensuring high level food handling and hygiene procedures were in place to protect their customers.
He said food safety steps should take were the same practices they should always have in place as standard to protect their customers from other viral or food borne threats.
“This is just a different threat to the kinds that are always around for foodservice operators.
“What we’ve done in the past is provide resources for the industry in the form of a wall charts that we produce that talks about developing risk management processes for these sorts of threats, developing processes in your business for being exposed to that sort of risk and having a plan if the risk eventuates.
“The strategy involves what you should do for your customers and your staff and if you start to see impacts what sort of precautions should you take, ramping up disinfectant thing and wearing masks and staff reporting if they are feeling ill,” he said. The chart produced by Pro Visual is available at provisual.com.au
