COVID-19 Food Safety Checklist For Takeout And Delivery

The three primary forms of doing business as a restaurant – dine-in, delivery and takeaway – have rapidly been re-ranked during the COVID-19 crisis, with delivery and takeaway suddenly becoming the only feasible ways for a restaurant to do business. While quick-service restaurants have always been comfortable with these models, dine-in restaurants that banked largely on the physical customer experience and ambience are also having to quickly pivot to delivery and takeaway. Post lockdown as well, customer willingness to dine out is expected to be low, at least until the outbreak wanes and restaurants are able to build significant trust with patrons around hygiene and quality checks.

Our recommended best practice food safety checklist (given below) will help customers and regulators become more confident of the safety of your product (food).

COVID-19 FOOD SAFETY CHECKLIST FOR DELIVERY & TAKE-OUT

GLOBAL BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES

RUN THIS CHECKLIST AT LEAST THRICE A DAY

☐ Temperature of all team members (and third parties) is being measured with thermal scanners prior to entry in the premises

☐ No team member on premises is displaying signs of cough or cold

☐ All team members are wearing single-use gloves

☐ All team members are washing hands and forearms (upto elbows) regularly (set timers if required) with an approved sanitizer for atleast 20 seconds, and changing single-use gloves after each wash

☐ All high contact BOH surfaces and equipment (kitchen tops, door knobs, refrigerator handles, condiment containers, etc) are being cleaned with an approved disinfectant regularly (set timers if required)

☐ All high contact FOH surfaces and equipment (tables, chairs, POS, door knobs, etc) are being cleaned with an approved disinfectant regularly (set timers if required)

☐ All restrooms are being cleaned with an approved disinfectant regularly (set timers if required)

☐ All cooking utensils are being washed at high temperatures

☐ All fresh vegetables, fruits and eggs are washed in 50 ppm chlorine solution before preparation

☐ All raw meats and seafood are cleaned thoroughly before preparation

☐ Cutlery, napkins, ketchup sachets, etc are not being added to takeout / delivery orders unless specifically asked for by customers

☐ All takeout and delivery packages are being properly sealed with tape prior to handover to customer / delivery partner

☐ Delivery bags are being sanitized every 2 hours incase delivery is handled by company riders

☐ Contactless delivery is being implemented incase delivery is handled by company riders

☐ Orders are not being handed over to third party delivery service if their rider is seeming unwell

☐ Deep-cleaning of premises is being done daily