ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

News of a recent conference on food hygiene in Sorrento from Italian reporter Anna Garbagna.

There will certainly be a follow-up to the initiative in which Afidamp organised a seminar in Sorrento on the sanitisation processes within kitchens. At the end of the event, the association received a diploma of merit awarded by the heads of APCI (Association of Professional Italian Chefs).

During the APCI Congress, Francesco Bertini and Roberto Galli, president and member of AfidampCOM board, raised awareness of the value of cleanliness in a high risk business sector such as catering to an audience of more then 150 chefs from all over Italy.

The chefs’ response was attentive and there was no shortage of technical questions on how to improve service in order to guarantee better safety to customers, while maintaining the quality and efficiency of equipment.

After a brief description of what Afidamp represents within the Italian association scenario, there was a discussion of the topics around cleaning in critical environments such as kitchens. Today’s kitchens are very different from those of 20 years ago; hygienic pitfalls increase constantly and directly involve the chef’s work and the ability of chefs to supervise those who work there. The responsibilities which burden the chef’s role are very broad and concern the creation and preparation of recipes as well as the checking of sanitisation and quality of service.

The cost of making mistakes is now high because consumers are more demanding about cleanliness. As demonstrated by research commissioned by Afidamp, for the majority of consumers the first indicator of cleanliness of a restaurant is the state of the kitchen, not least because information regarding a public place, especially if negative, circulates very quickly thanks to online forums and social media.

More information, more training and innovation in processes and products: these in short, are AfidampCOM’s answers to solve the critical aspects of cleaning, in restaurants too. Eating well in a clean environment makes the experience more pleasant: cooking and cleaning are two activities with many aspects in common. It is in fact impossible to reach levels of excellence in each of the two sectors without a strong passion, constantly updated training and the will to look after other people.

But catering was not the only topic; the seminar also included a session exclusively reserved for the hottest topics in the distribution sector. On the same day, in fact, there was a new appointment with the ‘visiting management’ which was open to distributors, associates and others from Central and South Italy.

The idea of a ‘visiting management’ in various Italian regions is part of a wider project aiming to involve local retailers by offering them the opportunity to be in direct contact with the association, to express their needs and to bring forward their ideas and proposals. After Rome, Catania and Sorrento it will not be long before the next leg of this great and interesting initiative.