RESTAURANT SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR COVID-19

The safety guidelines for COVID-19 proof restaurant operations

Necessity is the mother of invention & we realized that now more than ever before. Being with social distancing being concerned at the restaurant .they are now being innovative in how they can provide service to their customer seamlessly.

National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has released a comprehensive set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and safety guidelines for restaurants. The enhanced SOPs cover issues concerning social distancing, reducing touch points, receiving and handling of goods, and general health sanctity of the employees.

These SOPs also cover all available safety guidelines issued by bodies such as WHO, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and FSSAI. The industry body in association with Releski has developed the detailed SOPs, a Bengaluru based skill-tech Company.

Given that, training of employees would be crucial for seamless execution of these safety guidelines, The COVID-proof restaurant course includes multi-lingual, easy, and short video lessons displaying the guidelines for all departments and every single role depicting the SOP mentioned in these guidelines.

“Every restaurant cutting across formats is facing the harsh reality of subdued to shut business volumes in the present and the uncertainty of the business environment in the future. One thing is certain that hygiene and safety will be a key differentiator in the post-pandemic restaurant operations. With various agencies of the government releasing their own version of SOPs, we felt that it is important that NRAI releases its own set of comprehensive guidelines to its members which encompasses all the critical guidelines issued by everyone. The idea was to create a document that is practical, easy to understand and easy to implement for our members”.

The guidelines cover detailed steps of operations and guidelines for Front of the House and Back of the House. Statutory compliances have also been well-defined in the guidelines. It focuses on the new operating procedures for all possible departments of the Restaurant in all the formats.

Here’s what the guideline covers:

Front of the House (FOH)

Physical Distancing

Divide and conquers-table placements:

• The improvised seating plan should have a minimum distance of 2 meters between the tables. The distance of two meters (6 feet) between the tables should measure from one edge of the table to the other’s table edge.

• In case of back to back seating (eg. booths), the seats will be divided by Plexiglass divider raised up to 2 meters (6 feet) from the ground.

Contactless procedures for:

• Valet - High-risk areas and parking procedures
• Security - Arogya Setu mandate and guest entry protocols
• Host - Building trust with the guests –handling FAQs on calls and improvised steps to greet and seat the guests
• Server -Improvised steps of service and side station & table maintenance

Hygiene and sanitation guidelines for Housekeeping

• Restroom management
• Public area maintenance

Back of the House (BOH)

Receiving and Storage
Sanitation Guidelines (Kitchen & Back area): High-risk areas & surface disinfection

Managing Employee Health: Precautionary measures

Guidelines for Management: In case of any positive case.