Food Safety: Data Points
Cracker Barrel’s new reporting software helps manage and quickly correct the systems already in place.
By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 9/1/2007
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When it comes to food safety, the latest news at Cracker Barrel is that the 562-unit family-dining chain implemented data-collection software in May that tracks applicable figures and automatically creates reports.
While executives are happy to discuss the new system, they are quick to note that it’s a tool that enables them to analyze measurables that they’ve been taking all along.
“The software allows us to analyze quicker and analyze for trends so that if something is starting to go the wrong way, you can jump on it,” explains Bob Doyle, vice president of product development and quality assurance. “You can see things that are not moving in the direction you expect them to, and you can take action on them much quicker and prevent issues vs. reacting to them after the fact.”
Multiple Inputs
Data inputs begin early in the process. When the purchasing department identifies a potential supplier, Cracker Barrel begins evaluating third-party audit reports and the manufacturer’s own quality-assurance and food-safety procedures, including metal detection and recall protocols.
The process doesn’t end after Cracker Barrel’s QA staff visits and evaluates the supplier and the company begins using its products. “Then there’s a whole new set of data we start collecting,” Doyle says. “On an ongoing basis, we collect data from plant audits at their facilities, and we do an audit on their plants.”
Headquarters also conducts product audits, testing physical qualities like shape, chemical and micro properties such as percentage of fat and levels of bacteria, and taste.
The frequency of such testing depends on each item’s risk level, based on how important and critical to the brand it is. Take chicken, for example. “With the chicken, an item that is center of plate, very important, and we use a lot of it, we will audit the suppliers’ facilities at a greater frequency than maybe our salt supplier,” Doyle explains.
Unit by Unit
The data collection continues with the processes at the restaurant level, from food coming in the back door to dishes placed in front of the customer. A Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points program ensures that every recipe and procedure has control points that are checked and recorded.
Corporate also collects every health department inspection report. “We do a cross-grading process,” Doyle says. “Because there are numerous forms and grading systems across the country, we standardize it so we understand how we’re performing.”
If Cracker Barrel’s QA department sees concerns or issues, members of the team will go to the restaurant to help it address those areas or retrain staff. “Our approach with our stores is not to go in and find fault, it is to help them get better,” Doyle adds.
In the same spirit, the chain encourages restaurants to communicate often with their local health departments, he says. “We invite them back to work with us to make sure that we’re taking care of whatever they find. Having that relationship is big, the relationship between the health department and the restaurant. They are doing a job, and they can help you be better than where you’re at today.”
Cracker Barrel also conducts its own store audits, sometimes driven by a potential problem. The company is preparing to test a new audit program with a third party, scheduled to begin within the next couple of months.
To ensure food safety permeates the chain’s culture, all managers are trained in the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s ServSafe certification program. Hourly employees learn processes and their importance in every position’s training manual. “When you have a process laid out, you follow the same steps over and over again. That is absolutely critical, following it and living with it and breathing it every single day,” Doyle says.
Data Processing
Back at corporate, Cracker Barrel’s new software is taking all these measurables and creating exception reports, monitoring trigger points and automatically sending alerts when necessary. “When you’re the size we are—we work with hundreds of products, we have a lot of suppliers—there’s a lot of data being generated. This is something that takes all that, makes it manageable, makes it more efficient and more effective,” Doyle says.
“Actionable data is what we’re looking for, to be proactive vs. reactive,” he adds. “This tool allows us to do that.”
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