Every week, websites across the country like DineSafe present a list of foodservice establishments that have been closed, or issued conditional warnings of closure, and the violations that have been cited.

Inspection results identify restaurants, cocktail bars/beverage rooms, bakeries and QSRs deemed by Health Inspectors to be in violation of the provincial food safety regulations.

Violators can run the gamut from independent bakeries, food court operators, and franchise restaurants, to independent family restaurants. The element that violators have in common is a breakdown in the processes and procedures that ensure food safety.

In a world of open social networks, there’s nowhere to hide from the downside risks of violating health codes and/or consumers being affected by foodborne illness. During the pandemic, concerns about food safety have only been magnified. Thus, interest in and attention to safety needs to permeate the business culture of absolutely all operators, no matter their size or location, working with food.

The 5 top restaurant food safety areas of concern

The vast majority of food safety violations fall into the following problem categories commonly identified in foodservice inspections. Roughly 80% of the food handling practices leading to foodborne illnesses are covered by five specific breakdowns:

1. Keeping hot/cold food at correct temperatures
2. Proper handwashing practices
3. Food contact surfaces protected from contamination
4. Sanitation plan and cleaning schedule
5. Dishwasher procedures

Root causes

Pam Mandarino, an environmental health officer in Vancouver, conducted an extensive food safety study (2017) which analyzed inspection report data on temporary restaurant closures and food handling violations in British Columbia. The study cross-referenced findings of similar studies conducted in the U.S. 

Mandarino concluded that multiple factors, and not just food safety knowledge, affect safe food handling practices. 

Below are some of the factors she found that influence safe restaurant food preparation practices:

• Time pressures
• Manager indifference toward proper food safety practices
• Food safety certification and food safety training
• Inadequate food handler knowledge 
• Poorly designed kitchen facilities and insufficient standard operating procedures  

Stop food safety problems before they begin

Proactive attention to food safety practices and processes is your best bet to circumvent a food safety crisis. That being said, having an action plan in place to address a crisis, isolate the causes, and map a recovery path can forestall devastating outcomes. 

Myths and Truths About Food Poisoning

Source:  BC Centre for Disease Control (2009), Ensuring Food Safety Writing Your Own Food Safety Plan – A Guide for Food Service Operators. 

Gathering storm

In 2019, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency introduced the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR). The SFCR legislation requires food suppliers, importers/exporters, and foodservice operators to mandate preventability and to improve traceability – not an insignificant ask, given that the majority of the food we consume in Canada comes from abroad.

Lawrence Goodridge, Director at Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety, University of Guelph, feels that SFCR does not go far enough. He compares the traditional “surveillance” approach to food safety to predicting the weather: Each of us checks the weather each day, yet no individual feels strongly that their specific observations can accurately predict what will happen.

Smartphone apps are being engaged to accumulate user weather observations and their geo-locations. Feeding this data into artificial intelligence algorithms can create more accurate meta-reports on local weather patterns in real time. 

Imagine now that food safety was tracked in a similarly proactive fashion. Responses on foodborne outbreaks could be identified very early on, via smartphone, by individual consumers, leading to faster removal of contaminated food from the food chain. 

Top tips to prevent food safety situations

Restaurant food handling tip sheet

• Label and date your products when you receive them or when you prepare them.
• Understand proper food storage temperatures and storage.
• Rotate your food products (first in, first out). This should be standard procedure for everything: canned goods, produce, meat, dairy.
• Constantly do checks of the food in your fridges and ensure they’re set at the proper temperature.
• Reheat foods properly.
• Ensure correct handling of fresh produce, for instance not leaving it standing in cold water.

Restaurant food handling training

• Consider hiring a licensed cook with responsibility for ongoing staff training.
• Make sure all staff take a food handling course. 
• Make equipment handling courses mandatory, including an annual refresher so staff understand correct operation and cleaning of all equipment.
• Work the relationship with your local health unit and ask if they’ll help with training.
• Rehearse your food handling procedures. Don’t wait for a crisis to happen, be prepared to respond.

Restaurant cleaning

• Maintain a cleaning checklist, posted prominently for kitchen staff.
• Ensure your equipment is cleaned and sanitized.
• Work with your cleaning equipment supplier to recommend best products to use in the kitchen. A lot of suppliers will come in and train your staff.

Educating

• Stay on top of food safety issues. The CFIA publishes regular updates on food-borne issues along with the latest acts and regulations. Food manufacturers publish regular bulletins on their products, and many distributors also send out food safety alerts.
• Sign up for the National Food Safety Training Program, offered across the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented stresses on supply chains worldwide. Policies adapted to contain the spread of the virus have contributed to bottlenecks in farm labour, processing, transport and logistics and momentous shifts in demand, according to the OECD. Factory shutdowns and slowdowns, staff shortages, congested shipping routes and lean manufacturing with low inventories have all contributed to major obstructions at each stage of the supply chain. 

As some shipments are delayed or unavailable, foodservice operators are adapting and embracing flexibility. With recent storms knocking out primary supply routes, operators in B.C. and Newfoundland in particular have had additional challenges to face that exacerbate supply chain challenges.

“Buy what you need … and trust the system. The long-term goal of sourcing locally-made ingredients that are plentiful is the best way to shelter your business from disruptions.”

Peter De Bruyn, provincial chair of the BCRFA

Peter De Bruyn, provincial chair of the BCRFA, says the best way for foodservice operators to get through this is to “buy what you need, not necessarily overbuy, and trust the system. The long-term goal of sourcing locally-made ingredients that are plentiful is the best way to shelter your business from disruptions.” 

Experts recommend that foodservice operators focus on what they can control. That means nurturing strong (and local, when possible) partnerships, creating flexible menus that can be easily adapted, working out dish substitutions in advance, and keeping the lines of communication open with your staff, customers, and suppliers. 

Building relationships to enhance supply links

• Maintain good relationships with your suppliers to ensure adequate warning of any shortages or even price increases.  

By working with your foodservice distributors, operators can be better positioned to alleviate the impact on their business. “The supply challenges we have all faced have made the communication between operators and suppliers that much more important,” says Jason Voisey, purchasing manager at F. J. Wadden and Sons, based in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. 

“When distributors communicate any supply issues to their operators as soon as possible, the operator can adjust or modify menu plans,” he adds. “Addressing the circumstance early and working closely together helps ease the frustration and improves the relationship.” 

Tips to streamline your menus and simplify kitchen operations 

• Pay attention to which menu items are most impacted by restaurant supply chain issues.
• Remove them or offer them as features when ingredients are available.
• Reduce your number of items to those you are confident you can deliver for guests that day.
• Be ready to adjust menus on short notice.
• Make regular items feature items until ingredient supply returns to stability.
• Ensure your menu prices can absorb small increases from rising costs. 
• Pay attention to how today’s events will affect next week’s menu…and beyond.

Be flexible to achieve results

• Build greater efficiency and stability of supply and don’t run out of menu items nearly as often. 

During these challenging times, being open to more generic products adds flexibility, Voisey advises. “Each operator has preferred products that they would like to use. By working with their distributors to understand which products are available, operators can find suitable alternatives. This may impact some recipes and plate profiles, but it can help keep items on the menu and avoid guest disappointment.” 

Suppliers may have several SKUs of similar products, and while some work well, others don’t, De Bruyn says. “Know what items you can easily substitute while you wait for your main supply to return.”

Managing expectations is important, adds Sylvain Charlebois, director, Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. “We are already seeing menus shrinking as well, which is not a bad strategy. Less could and will likely be better in the future, from a supply chain perspective.”

Carrying extra inventories can help get through the current challenges, Voisey says. “But equally, distributors have to monitor their carrying costs and cash flow closely.”

Assess your risk and plan ahead

• Update your emergency plan to include the learning from this pandemic and supply disruptions. 

Audits and stress tests will become more critical for companies, Charlebois says. And more supplier options will also be critical if the company experiences a breach of some sort across the supply chain.

“Most companies have an emergency plan, but most did not include a strategy for dealing with a pandemic. Cybersecurity is another issue most companies will need a plan for, and that plan needs to be linked to the supply chain.”

Technology can help 

• Online ordering systems, sales trackers and target marketers can mitigate restaurant supply chain impacts. 

Using technology by tracking sales helps the foodservice operator make more informed decisions when it comes deciding if an option should be kept on the menu, Voisey says. “Focusing on the most popular items and working with the supplier to ensure these items are available allows the operator to focus on what they can sell and not what is unavailable.” 

Data and technology are more important now than ever, and we generally have great access to it, De Bruyn says. “Most of us have point-of-sale systems; as well, we may have the data from our third-party delivery companies. This data can help us understand not only what products consumers are buying specifically, but what trends exist with purchasing behaviour. In times of supply shortages especially, there is no benefit to investing extra labour sourcing ingredients for a low-selling menu item.”

The use of more predictive analytics and forecasting are great tools to understand what lies ahead for foodservice businesses, Charlebois says. “We are expecting more companies in the sector to use promising technologies offered by machine learning, for example.” 

Ingredient tips

• Develop or modify menus with ingredients that are common among several suppliers. 
• Use reliable ingredients in several menu items wherever possible. 
• Source local ingredients from trusted suppliers or even directly from farmers.  

Great idea 💡

If a popular menu item is unavailable for a time, advertise it on social media when it does return – even for just a limited time offer – to build diner excitement.

More information: 

Food Supply Chains and COVID-19: Impacts and Policy Lessons

Taking customers back to a simpler time through bites on your menu can bring very up-to-date new dollars to your bottom line. Whether it is fallout from dealing with COVID for way too long, or Canadians generally longing for the times in our lives that felt easier and safer, a quick trip down memory lane is, increasingly, through our tastebuds. But rest assured, you don’t need to completely revamp your menu to add some retro flavour.

For some, it just takes a phrase – cruising the strip on Friday night. For others, just a word – fondue. A few music notes might be all it takes. Or it might even just be an ingredient – maraschino cherries. All evoke memories of simpler, less COVID times.

Give your customers a moment in time, their time. The demographic of your guests will determine which decade or decades your menu (and bar) additions could play in. 

Add a little retro to your restaurant menu

When it comes to food, retro is not necessarily about the flavour or taste. Retro is about the feeling that menu item or ingredient or style of presentation evokes.  

No need to fully commit. It doesn’t have to be the whole menu or even an entire meal.  

Sprinkle some memories all over the menu – a devilled egg here, a jellied salad there, Tequila Sunrise at the bar, Black Forest Cake for dessert. It doesn’t take much to add retro chic to the vibe.

Sprinkle some memories all over the menu – a devilled egg here, a jellied salad there, Tequila Sunrise at the bar, Black Forest Cake for dessert. It doesn’t take much to add retro chic to the vibe.

If you can’t decide or have a smorgasbord of ideas you want to try out, retro options lend perfectly to LTOs. They are time offers, after all. So, take a spin through the decades until something clicks – with you and your diners.  

“Make mine retro” is an approach that might appeal to guests who love customizing their meals. They still get to order their favourite dishes from your menu but can give them a retro spin with a selection of add-ons – devilled eggs, scalloped potatoes, layered jelly, vegetable croquette.

Share the memories

Sharables bring people together. Adding some menu items that start conversations about the good ole days will fill your customers’ cravings for delicious comradery.

Retro night – change the music, adjust the lighting, make a few menu additions and you are ready to go. Pick a decade and jump all in or cycle through the decades each week. 

Involve your guests – costume contest, trivia, vote for favourites (song/music artist, movie, tv show, fashion). Everyone is yearning for events, involvement and new experiences.

Take the 1950s, a very evocative decade. Change your music selection to Elvis, Frankie, Dean, maybe even a little Johnny Cash.  Brighten the lighting and give your waitstaff a bandana (hair, neck or back pocket). 

1950’s Menu Ideas

• Cocktail Hour – Manhattans and Sidecars, Stuffed Celery and Shrimp Cocktail
• Salad – Jellied Salad and Three Bean Salad
• Main – Chicken a la King in Puff Pastry
• Dessert – Chiffon Cake or Pineapple Upside Down Cake

How about shareable options? Platters or even retro flights. Pick a decade or offer a selection of items spanning decades. A retro flight could be used to travel the decades one bite at a time – bar selections, appetizers and desserts are a great fit for a trip back in time.

Try retro-fitted upgrades in your restaurant menu

Bringing a recipe back from the past to meet current trends while pleasing the nostalgic palate is a smart approach.

Do you remember hoping your mom would order French onion soup when you were a kid? That drool-worthy soup would arrive at the table, with broiled cheese melting generously over the side of the ovenproof crock. Remember impatiently waiting for it to cool enough to get that first extra cheesy bite, even suffering through a piece of onion? 

You likely aren’t the only person with fond memories of this starter.

Sure, you can keep it classic, if that suits your brand. But consider giving it an upgrade to make it yours – stand out from the crowd.  It doesn’t take much.

How to adapt your restaurant menu:

Whether you call it retro or nostalgic, it all comes down to comfort and remembering a time when things felt happy and right… When we were all younger and lives seemed simpler, easier and safer. All it takes is one bite to bring back the flavour, fun and fondness. It might be so popular that old school becomes new school.

Family-owned businesses possess many strengths, such as their ability to look at the long-term development of their operation and align interests between management and owner.

This is especially true of “owner-operator” structures often seen with independent restaurant operators. However, restaurant owner/operators also face some challenges, such as how to objectively evaluate performance and capabilities and how best to ensure talent development within the family.

In some cases, families – despite having a common base to build on and often working together day-to-day – find it difficult to conduct conversations among themselves about important financial issues. It’s very hard to disconnect emotions and be fact-based and objective in a family business. Therefore, obtaining some external impartial support can be a source of great assistance. 

According to the Family Firm Institute, 70% of family businesses will not survive into the second generation and 90% will not survive to the third generation. As well, a Canadian Business Insights study from 2021 found that “only 34% of Canadian family businesses have a robust, documented and communicated succession plan in place.”

Succession planning for family-owned restaurants need not be a frightening prospect. 

Here’s how you can plan your family-based restaurant for success:

Not a one-off succession plan

The first thing to understand about succession planning is that it is not a one-off exercise, but rather a way of managing the family business professionally during the business’s lifetime. In addition, this is not only about succession at the top, but throughout your entire operation. The same issues appear across the business on all levels. Having adequate processes in place is necessary for all family-owned businesses.

Start early

Engaging family to determine their personal aspirations and wishes is no small feat. It takes time and rarely proceeds in a straight line. It’s important to start early so the family’s collective goals and values can percolate over the years and lead to a broadly accepted family vision.

In multi-generational family businesses involving various branches, it’s crucial to encourage full participation of the entire family or representatives of the various family branches. Family meetings can be a productive way to promote communication, cooperation, and, most importantly, trust. Creating a board of family advisors might be a good idea. Emotions can run high when dealing with family issues. Holding regular “check-ins” can help manage the emotions around succession planning.

Prepare for your business transition

Comparing internal factors that a family can control versus external factors that are beyond a family’s control helps the decision-making process.

Internal factors within the control of the family are: the corporate structure (including the current shareholders agreement), culture, employees, business profitability, and access to financing.

External factors include changes in competition, technology, market demand, and public policy. By blending both internal and external analysis with family member communication, it should become clear whether your family should keep the business in the family or consider selling. The family should set out steps and milestones within the framework of a strategic plan.

Prepare for your personal transition

Succession planning tends to focus on technical aspects like tax and estate, while insufficient attention is paid to planning for lifestyle balance and building a new identity post-succession.

Only in hindsight do many owners realize the impact that succession of the family business creates. Inevitably, leaving the business can create a void. Some owners even haunt their former restaurant, never quite yielding control to the next generation, and, in some extreme cases, may actually disrupt the succession plan they put in place. Take the time to create your personal post-succession life plan.

Work with the right team of advisors

Given the generation-to-generation nuances of a family-owned business, choosing the right type of support is critical. Typically, succession planning issues appear across generations, so it’s useful if you already work with a trusted advisor, with that trust spanning across multiple generations of family members. Your trusted advisor can head up a larger team of specialists (such as an accountant, lawyer, banker and insurance broker) skilled in succession planning itself, but also in related key areas such as talent and career planning, skills development, governance, communications, and role definition across the generations.

Quick tips to plan for family business transition

• Establish timelines to keep on track.
• Set milestones for achieving goals.
• Keep your succession plan up to date.
• Review your plan at least once a year to reflect changes.
• Prepare a communication plan to notify your successors, staff, suppliers and customers of your succession plans.
• Work with professional advisors.

Menu engineering, the process restaurateurs use to analyze the cost and popularity of menu items and adjust pricing to maximize profitability, is more important than ever for Canada’s foodservice operators. 

The industry faces many challenges in this late-pandemic period, including staffing shortages, supply issues and rising costs. As patio season winds down, consumer hesitancy about in-restaurant dining continues, yet many people are eager to return to their favourite spots. Demand for takeout & delivery and expectations for a demonstrably safe dining experience remain high.

As a result, many restaurants are looking to downsize menus to upsize revenue, focusing on dishes that hit the sweet spot where high sales and maximum profit meet. They also need the flexibility to quickly change what’s on offer, as well as ways to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to in-house dining safety.

Operators need to go beyond the traditional, time-honoured calculations of menu engineering to reconsider the very nature of menus. How can they be easily changeable and available to patrons as conveniently and safely as possible? 

The answer is digital restaurant menus.

“The main benefits of using digital menus are ease of access and flexibility. Any customer can view a digital menu anywhere . . . restaurant owners can add or modify menu items at any time.” 

Amina Gilani, Co-Founder and COO of Sociavore

The benefits of digital restaurant menus

• Access and Agility — Amina Gilani, Co-Founder and COO of Sociavore, the independent restaurant website platform and Brand Points PLUS partner, says, “The main benefits of using digital menus are ease of access and flexibility. Any customer can view a digital menu anywhere, right from their smartphone, tablet or computer, even after hours when the restaurant is closed. Restaurant owners can add or modify menu items at any time without having to print new physical menus.” 
• Many Ways to Share Your Brand Story — Digital menus go beyond simply listing food choices; they’re important marketing tools, since so many people check out menus online before choosing a restaurant to visit or order from. Your digital menu is a way to complement the brand story you tell on your website and in your physical premises.
• Maximizing Profit — Designing menus to highlight the most profitable items can influence customer choices to help restaurants maximize profit. Gilani says that digital menus give you the ability to “create engaging menu descriptions and add mouth-watering food photography to accompany each menu choice.”
• Expanded Information — Digital menus allow customers to easily access information about dietary concerns and restrictions, which traditionally have required conversations with the server. With the click of a link, customers can check ingredients and nutritional details.
• A Shoppable Experience — Your static digital menu can be converted into a shoppable ordering menu. Gilani says this allows customers “to browse and place orders for pickup or delivery right from your restaurant website.” With Sociavore’s commission-free delivery integration you can save on third-party delivery fees and retain your customer data too.

Different Ways to Digitize Your Menu

Menu digitization ranges from low-tech options to highly integrated systems:

• At the lowest tech level, some restaurants simply post photographs of menus on their website or Facebook page. The photography isn’t always optimal, but even when it is, readability can be an issue, especially on mobile devices. And the photos need to be reloaded each time the menu changes.
• Other restaurants upload PDF menus to their website and social media. This approach has the same mobile readability and reloading challenges as photos.
• Next level up are web-based menus. “Restaurateurs can use Sociavore to create and manage digital menus on their restaurant websites. With a few clicks of a button, you can add new items, limit inventory, add custom fees and taxes, and more,” says Gilani.
• Making QR (quick response) codes — those square barcodes that look a bit like abstract art — available on tabletop, at the storefront, and on marketing materials is the next rung up the digital menu ladder. They allow customers to quickly click through to the most current version of your digital menu as soon as they’re seated.
• Finally, QR codes can be integrated with contactless ordering and payment systems. A Restaurants Canada press release from December 2020 states: “QR codes are the new norm for menu viewing, touchless ordering, and paying the bill.”

A Deeper Dive into QR Codes

While QR codes have been around since the ’90s, they’ve really taken off as foodservice operators and consumers adapted to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using them is easier than ever, helping foster their ready acceptance by the dining public. 

Many newer smartphones have built-in QR code viewers, so no special app is needed. A patron can simply open their phone’s photo app, focus on the QR code, and then follow the pop-up link to the restaurant’s menu. This makes ordering faster and minimizes contact with the server.

The right website platform can take QR codes to the next level with contactless ordering and payment system integration. Customers can order and even pay the bill from their phone to have their meal delivered to their table (or for takeout and delivery), for the ultimate in convenience and contactless dining.

“Guests can easily access the restaurant’s ordering menu via the QR code and order directly from the menu. This reduces short-term labour costs and increases table turnover with faster, more efficient ordering.”

Amina Gilani, Co-Founder and COO of Sociavore

QR codes also benefit restaurant operations, as Gilani explains: “Sociavore’s contactless dining feature streamlines the restaurant’s service by sending orders directly from the guest’s phone to the kitchen. Guests can easily access the restaurant’s ordering menu via the QR code and order directly from the menu. This reduces short-term labour costs and increases table turnover with faster, more efficient ordering.” She says, for instance, that this feature has powered the largest patios in Toronto (the Distillery District and RendezViews) as well as many independent restaurants.

Letting your community know about these safety enhancements may encourage the hesitant to return to in-person dining more quickly. It’s also helpful in retaining and attracting staff, a major industry concern.

Bye-bye Paper Menus?

The pandemic has certainly accelerated the demise of the formal printed menu. Many restaurants switched to single-use menus for safety reasons before moving to QR codes. But it may be premature to declare paper menus as passé as paper letters. 

Not everyone has a smartphone. Some don’t have data and need your WiFi to use QR codes. Sometimes people simply forget their phone. Even the most tech-advanced restaurant should have some single-use paper menus available as a contingency.

Tips for the Digital Menu Age

• Embrace digital design — “Let your menu reflect your brand!” Gilani says. “Don’t be afraid to switch it up and create new menus for special events or holidays. Also, be sure to include a clear, well-lit photograph of each menu item — you’ll notice a significant increase in online sales and basket size.”
• Help customers become tech savvy — Some customers need to get comfortable with menu technology. Tactfully show them the ropes. Demonstrate that using QR codes is as easy as opening their phone app, and show them how to find more details about menu items. Once they’ve got the hang of how simple it is to use a tabletop QR code, they’ll be converts.
• Be generous with those QR codes — Consider placing several QR code stickers on each table. After all, patrons clamouring to click through to your digital menu won’t want to queue up for their chance!