19th May 2020: As India’s biggest businesses prepare to gradually transition back from the WFH (Work From Home) model they’ve followed over recent weeks, reopening cafeterias for staff use while being fully compliant with the latest protocols around social distancing and enhanced safety and hygiene across the entire value chain of F&B operations, is a key priority.
HungerBox, India’s leading institutional food-tech company has unveiled a robust solution based on FSSAI (Food Safety & Standards Authority of India) and WHO guidelines, and the GOI’s AarogyaSetu App to make cafeteria operations ‘COVID-19 safe.’
Sandipan Mitra, CEO and Co-Founder of HungerBox said “The HungerBox ‘COVID-19 Safe’ solution follows a five-pronged approach which envelops aspects such as technology, user connect and communication, WHO-prescribed supervisor training and enhanced protocols for kitchen and cafeteria operations including rigorous checks on operations personnel and a tech-led monitoring system that encompasses a 360 degree view of cafeteria operations.
“While cafés receive a constant flow of users through the day, our data shows that cafeterias in an institutional setting experience a peak flow at 1:17 pm. Apart from the crowding, cash transactions can also result in an increased risk of transmission of the virus. We have worked with our clients to co-create this solution to decongest café’s, implement enhanced safety measures and operational procedures in line with the latest FSSAI guidelines to mitigate risks and minimize food contamination and risk of the COVID-19 transmission,” said Mitra.
Using AI/ ML, the HungerBox platform regulates user flow into cafeterias and enables decongestion and enables enhanced crowd management. This ensures that users visit the café only when it is a safe and social distancing can be maintained. HungerBox has also implemented improved safety protocols inside the kitchen as well as in the cafeterias. Only those ‘fit to work’ and handle food will be allowed to operate as Café Experience Managers. Regular temperature screening of staff and monitoring of compliance to food safety standards at the kitchen, food counters and cafeteria are executed with the help of HungerBox’s tech. In addition to this, all leading contactless payment options are provided to eliminate the risk of virus transmission due to cash handling.
Clients are empowered with a data dashboard that helps track the real-time status of the cafe operations.
As part of the solution, kitchen operations based on prescribed FSSAI standards envelop raw material handling, food preparation, kitchen hygiene standards and food transportation with 11 different records being maintained at HungerBox partner kitchens. These include several logs for sanitization, cooking temperature, cleaning checklists for premises, transport etc. Once the food reaches clients’ cafeteria, the focus on stringent standards is maintained across areas such as food service & ordering, counter hygiene, café hygiene and café monitoring. Since the company’s inception in 2016, the HungerBox platform has handled more than 200 million orders. The company operates across 23 cities nationwide with 158 clients in the Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Tech Park, Mall & Multiplex sectors.
