Takeout & Delivery Food Safety Best Practices

47% of consumers felt uncertain about their safety when ordering takeout or delivery.* And as consumers spend more time than ever evaluating their food options, restaurants can help by easing concerns of their guests by understanding and sharing take-out and delivery best practices.

According to the FDA, there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19. But, like other viruses, it is possible that COVID-19 can survive on surfaces or objects, making it critical to follow the four key steps of food safety – clean, separate, cook and chill.

Everyone in the food supply chain is focused on following exceptional hygiene practices, including using disposable gloves, thoroughly washing hands and disinfecting surfaces regularly to keep the risk of spreading COVID-19 level low.

Now you can take these efforts a step further by implementing one or more of the following identified best practices:

By offering cashless and touch-free transactions at your establishment, you can further minimize human contact and ease guest concern. This includes in-app payment, WiFi payment on your POS, ApplePay and easily set-up touch-free methods of payment such as Zelle, Venmo, Cash App and PayPal.

If you’re offering deliveries, communicate on your website, social channels and via phone orders that food will be left on the doorstep and that your delivery person will call to confirm receipt. Delivery drivers should wait, at a distance of at least 6-ft away from the door, to confirm the order is received and correct before departing.

Using a drive-thru window helps maintain social distancing and reduces the number of touch points between the restaurant employee and guest.

There is very low risk of COVID-19 being transmitted via take-out packaging, but to ease concerns, consumers can pick up any takeout or delivery packages with gloves. What’s more, all concerned consumers can keep themselves safe by removing the food from the packaging, properly dispose of the packaging and transfer the food onto a plate, before again washing their hands.

For more questions implementing best practices for your business, contact your Shamrock Foods Sales Representative today. And to learn more about COVID-19 and the foodservice industry, click here.

*Datassential