The Best Way to Ensure Hygiene and Safety Compliance in Fast Food Chains

Fast food services are a hugely popular and fast-growing segment in the food services industry all across the world and not just in the United States where it is believed to have evolved. The popularity of US fast-food brands has transcended the frontiers of that country and became globally renowned, earning huge revenues. The global fast-food market is worth USD 675 billion (approx) currently and is expected to grow close to USD 1 trillion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.6% during this period. The top brands have been able to grow to their present size mainly by focusing on high quality, which usually includes excellent food health and hygiene along with taste, innovation, and branding along with convenience, which is a very important factor.

Covid-19 Pandemic Has Complicated Things

It has been over a year now that the Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the world disrupting normal life, bringing entire countries to a standstill. This has wrecked all the economies across the world with business activities in most industries either lying stagnant or moving at a snail's pace. However, some industries like fast food services are doing better than many others, especially those that are strictly complying with food safety and hygiene guidelines among others and communicating their advantage to the market. Such compliances are going to be around for a pretty long time because of the proliferating and contagious nature of the virus.

Not All Fast Food Businesses Are Big

The emphasis on quality that has helped the biggest fast food brands to grow into multi-billion dollar global brands is not found in the approach of smaller businesses that operate on a much lower scale. The long term benefits of strong focus on quality are not easily understood by the smaller businesses because most of them lack depth in strategic insight. The few that do, move on to grow and become famous brands.

Before the pandemic broke out, these small fast food businesses got away with it but now if they don't adopt the food safety and hygiene compliances, they won't be able to compete in today's or tomorrow's market. And one of the ways to ensure such strict compliance is to deploy AI-based video analytics with their camera monitoring systems. This would help in detection and flagging of non-compliance with process and safety guidelines in real time for businesses to take immediate action for damage control.

Food Health, Hygiene and Safety Compliance is The Key

It is true that strict food safety and hygiene compliances are an important factor for the growth of the reputed fast food brands to the exalted positions they are in today. It is one of the reasons why they enjoy the trust and confidence of the customers because they not only seem to be doing the right things but also communicate about the safety and hygiene measures they are adopting in their units. Most importantly, these established fast food brands have not just set up strict food safety and hygiene guidelines but are also undertaking strong measures to ensure total compliance. For that they have installed camera monitoring systems integrated with AI-based video analytics that help in the detection of guideline violations in real time.

Importance of AI-based video monitoring systems

Why is it necessary to install a 24/7 multiple camera monitoring system in a fast food outlet or in its centralised kitchen, lobby, entrance or parking for detecting non-compliance with regulations? The answer is, manual analysis of the voluminous camera feed in real time is not possible and that is why it is necessary to integrate it with AI-based video analytics. When this is done, the user gets several advantages such as alerts for non-compliance with regulations and guidelines on real time as well as data of the individual concerned along with the time, place and nature of violation. This allows the management to take swift action and control the damage on time.

Conclusion

The fast food industry is growing at a decent pace globally and also has one of the most intensive and creative product development cycles. Eventually, it is meant to meet people’s hunger as well as give them interesting taste options with convenient access to quality food that is ready to eat. This requires a complex inventory from the warehouse to the kitchen and onto the customers’ plate. The big global brands have certain quality parameters in place with regard to use of raw, semi-cooked and cooked foodstuff and disposal of such material including the way it is done.

Any violation of the set guidelines in carrying out such disposal of foodstuff that doesn’t meet the company’s food health and hygiene policies, should be detected and flagged in real time. This will allow the management to take immediate action and avert a crisis that may erupt in case any customer falls ill after taking food made from material that should have been disposed of. A camera-monitoring system integrated with AI-based video analytics will ensure food safety and hygiene compliances as required by the guidelines that the company had set up.

About Wobot

Wobot.ai is an AI-based video-analytics platform that is ideal for ensuring process, food safety and hygiene compliance in the fast food services industry. Such a platform is effective for both single-unit fast-food outlets as well multiple-unit chains where it will be highly effective in ensuring total compliance with food safety, hygiene and sanitation. This is necessary for fast food brands that want to offer better quality service and improved product and service experience to customers especially their perception of food health and hygiene in the outlet.

Wobot's AI-powered video analytics is a critical requirement for effective analysis of the camera feed from the network of monitoring cameras in a specific fast food outlet. The Wobot platform analyses the camera feed frame by frame, detects non-compliance and flags the incident in real time irrespective of the data load. This helps a business to take productivity to another level.