Case Study: Musgrave Operating Partners Ireland (MOPI)

Musgrave Operating Partners Ireland (MOPI) represents 22 SuperValu stores that are owned and managed by Musgrave. As Ireland’s leading food retail, wholesale and foodservice company, Musgrave is proud to be one of Europe’s most successful family-owned businesses with a 140-year heritage in food and brand innovation.

In a busy and highly competitive food retail environment, MOPI was looking for a food safety system that would:

  • help them to streamline their HACCP process.
  • reduce time spent on manual temperature checks.
  • reduce time spent on paperwork.
  • provide reliable digital HACCP to automate processes for high food safety standards and regulatory compliance.

Kelsius worked with MOPI to deliver results for their stores. Using the Kelsius system, MOPI:

  • has achieved a 50% reduction in time spent on HACCP.
  • has all but eliminated stock loss due to temperature failures in plug-in fridges and freezers.
  • saves management time thanks to remote visibility of food safety activities in-store.
  • has achieved simpler and easy-to-access traceability for all colleagues.
  • can assure auditors with the ability to provide graphs and charts showing the history of a temperature and that spikes in temperatures are under control.
  • has achieved significant labour benefits as temperatures do not have to be manually checked, thus reducing the risks associated with manual processes.

 

COSMO Authentic World Kitchen FoodCheck Case Study

Download the PDF Case Study here.
https://www.kelsius.com/news-blog/media/Cosmo.pdf
Background
Launched in 2003, COSMO have now grown to have 19 restaurants across UK and Ireland. COSMO Authentic World Kitchen is inspired by the best five-star hotels in the world, which bring a choice of fresh food under the same roof and elevate the buffet concept to new levels. Teppanyaki experts grill steaks and fresh seafood right in front of your eyes and chefs lay on a never-ending array of dishes.
Challenge Facing Store Owner
COSMO were looking for a system that would satisfy their Primary Authority Partnership at Reading. The system needed to be fully compliant with their current Food Safety regulations. Critically, it needed to be able to provide labour savings against manual checks that were being carried out and they wanted to eradicate paperwork piling up. The business also wanted to be able to have visibility of what was happening across the whole business, before EHO visits, so that they could be proactive to ensure standards were being achieved.
With a diverse demographic of employees from different regions of the world the system had to be very user friendly.

FoodCheck Paperless HACCP System
The Kelsius HACCP solution is a fully automated, paperless system which ensures full compliance with statutory food safety requirements. Kelsius wireless temperature sensors monitor and record temperatures in all refrigerated areas and freezers. If a measured temperature rises above a set limit, an alert is triggered. This alert can be transmitted as a text message, email and via local visual alarms.
In addition to continuous temperature recording the Kelsius system also provides time and task management by recording key activities such as deliveries, cleaning tasks, hot & cold food probing and deli traceability. All records are securely stored on the Kelsius website and each retailer can access their records at any time from any Web-enabled PC or laptop. HACCP reports can also be automatically emailed as required.
Find out more about FoodCheck

COSMO Strategic Partnership with Kelsius
An alternative system was trialled at one of the branches but failed to meet their requirements. Following on from this it was decided to trial the FoodCheck paperless HACCP system by Kelsius.
Following an extensive trial of FoodCheck at the Nottingham branch a further 2 restaurants in Dublin and Southampton were implemented. Over the next 3 months and through regular consultation Kelsius continued to work with COSMO to ensure that the systems functionalities were all being utilised.
Finally an agreement was made to award Kelsius the contract to provide our FoodCheck system across the Group. The Kelsius FoodCheck system is now installed in all locations as well as the production kitchen in Milton Keynes and has provided many benefits and savings to the business.

Conclusion
FoodCheck ensured COSMO were fully compliant with all Food Safety Regulations and more than satisfied the Primary Authority Partnership at Reading.
COSMO experienced substantial labour savings when eliminating manual unit checks, HACCP administration and Audit preparation.
FoodCheck helped COMSO to eradicate vast amounts of paperwork.
All information recorded on the system is stored using Cloud Technology allowing Senior Management to access HACCP records remotely and easily to ensure standards were being achieved.
FoodCheck’s easy-to-use interface and the comprehensive training delivered by Kelsius ensured all staff are proficient in the use of the system.

“We have the Kelsius FoodCheck HACCP system in operation in all our restaurants throughout the UK and Ireland. We have found the system invaluable in assisting us in implementing our Food Safety plan.
It is so easy for staff to use and for management to access and review records.
We can access records from all Restaurants remotely allowing for greater visibility and the Group Usage Reports are fantastic.
Comso restaurants have an average score of 4.92 out of 5 among participating Restaurants in the Scores on the Doors Scheme with all the Restaurants in Scotland achieving the top grade. Kelsius has been instrumental in helping us reach this level.”
Thomas Pawlowski, Head of Operations

Four Seasons Limassol FoodCheck Case Study

Background

On the sunny beach of Limassol in southern Cyprus lies the luxurious 5-star Four Seasons Hotel. The luxury resort features over 300 elegant rooms, suites and Residences, a total of six restaurants, which are among the best in Cyprus, 4 busy bars and extensive banqueting.

The hotel also offers an exclusive Spa and comprehensive leisure facilities, including sauna, steam rooms, a fully equipped gym, indoor and outdoor pools as well as a kids club and fashion boutiques.

Challenges and Requirements facing the Hotel

In 2018, Hotel management took many decisions regarding sustainability, a major one of which was to reduce paper in as many areas of the hotel as possible and to go paperless wherever we could.

In addition the hotel was also transitioning from the traditional HACCP certification to ISO 22000, so it was the ideal opportunity to start looking for a digital system to manage HACCP requirements.

After a lengthy vetting process of 4 different systems all of which were initially sourced via the internet, Management opted for Kelsius’ FoodCheck system as it was offering the closest match to their requirements.

FoodCheck Paperless HACCP System

The Kelsius HACCP solution is a fully automated, paperless system which ensures full compliance with statutory food safety requirements. Kelsius wireless temperature sensors monitor and record temperatures in all refrigerated areas and freezers. If a measured temperature rises above a set limit, an alert is triggered. This alert can be transmitted as a text message, email and via local visual alarms.

In addition to continuous temperature recording the Kelsius system also provides time and task management by recording key activities such as deliveries, cleaning tasks, hot & cold food probing and deli traceability. All records are securely stored on the Kelsius website and each retailer can access their records at any time from any Web-enabled PC or laptop. HACCP reports can also be automatically emailed as required.

Four Season Limassol HACCP Manager Petros Antoniou, a Scottish Cypriot, is ecstatic “The best thing for me personally is- the fact that when taking food temperatures you can see exactly who, when and where they were taken at the click of a mouse and all the information is stored and available instantly! No more hunting through files and folders. The best thing is the information is digitized, in one place and very easy to find and check!”

Conclusion

Kelsius assisted the Four Seasons in removing paper from their Kitchens by removing Delivery sheets, probing sheets such as First Cook, Hot Holding and Cold Serve Over records. Cleaning tasks schedules and paper records of manually recorded Fridge and Freezer temperatures have also been permanently removed from operation. This assisted management in drive to go paperless and promote sustainability.

The digitalization of the HACCP system in the Four Season Limassol has helped drive the standards of excellence that is central to Management’s operation ethos. The processes now in place greatly reduce the risk of human error ever being a factor. With so many processes now being automated, it allows for greater transparency and security.

Kelsius have more than fulfilled the requirements set out at the beginning of the process and Management of the Four Seasons Limassol are more confident now than ever that the correct decision was made in selecting Kelsius and FoodCheck.

“The efficiency and service levels from the team at Kelsius were excellent, reminiscent of our own philosophy and I must be the first to say that the installation was a dream, the engineer sent over to install our system was very knowledgeable and extremely efficient as well as being an effective trainer passing on his knowledge to our own team members.

The system has met all our needs and is still evolving 6 months down the line, it has also meant that from our engineers point of view he can also perform better preventive maintenance on over 100 fridges and freezers we have on the premises.
It has met our needs in removing paper as well as greatly reducing time and labor from our HACCP management.
I would highly recommend the Kelsius system to any hotel.”

Nick Aristou, Executive Director

Centra Rochestown FoodCheck Case Study

Download the PDF Case Study here.
https://www.kelsius.com/news-blog/media/Centra-Rochestown.pdf
Background
Centra Rochestown opened in 1999, located on the busy Rochestown road in County Cork. With a petrol station, busy deli and convenience store available, footfall through the shop is very high.
Owner Mary McGroarty was very quick to recognise the important of the fresh food offering which accounts for a significant portion of turnover.
Mary identified a number of areas which could be improved to aid her prosperous business in order to help growth within the organisation.
Challenge Facing Store Owner
To reduce the amount of time and labour spent on HACCP
Full compliance with HSE and EIQA regulations
Replace manual logging procedures and paper-based records which were at risk of human error and falsification
To provide a reliable, cost effective, fully automated approach to 24/7 HACCP monitoring and recording
FoodCheck Paperless HACCP System
The Kelsius HACCP solution is a fully automated, paperless system which ensures full compliance with statutory food safety requirements. Kelsius wireless temperature sensors monitor and record temperatures in all refrigerated areas and freezers. If a measured temperature rises above a set limit, an alert is triggered. This alert can be transmitted as a text message, email and via local visual alarms.
In addition to continuous temperature recording the Kelsius system also provides time and task management by recording key activities such as deliveries, cleaning tasks, hot & cold food probing and deli traceability. All records are securely stored on the Kelsius website and each retailer can access their records at any time from any Web-enabled PC or laptop. HACCP reports can also be automatically emailed as required.
Strategic Partnership with Musgraves
Musgraves introduced Kelsius cloud-based food safety monitoring system in their Store network with an official agreement concluded in September 2015. Kelsius, having worked with numerous individual stores within the Musgrave organisation and having completed a successful trial, agreed a strategic partnership with Musgrave to offer store owners all the benefits of FoodCheck.
“Implementing rigorous food safety and quality controls is fundamental to SuperValu and Centra. The Kelsius’ FoodCheck system ensures excellence in food safety monitoring and we are delighted to be able to offer this to our retail partners.” said Ray Bowe, Head of Food Safety for the Musgrave Group. The system has since been rolled out to over 125 retail outlets throughout Ireland with new stores signing up weekly. Ray Bowe continued “This innovative system helps us continue to offer the highest standards of food safety and quality to our shoppers that they have come to expect.”

This Kelsius system removes the risk of HACCP-related errors, in turn protecting customers from the effects of food-related hazards and the retailer from the risk of litigation. Currently operational at over 1000 sites throughout the UK and Ireland, the Kelsius system has been chosen by some of Europe’s largest organisations to automate their HACCP processes.
FoodCheck provides immediate resolution to problems; it eliminates the risk of human error during the food preparation process, it is easy to train new staff, and is also very easy to maintain.
Kelsius Executive Chairman Eamonn Quinn commented, “Food safety is the most important issue for any company operating in food retail as the reputation of a brand can be irreparably damaged through just one major incident. Our cloud based technology enables food retailers replace existing onerous paper based check systems and save time and money whilst implementing the very best solution for food chain management. The recorded information is available immediately as it is needed and reduces the possibility of human error in the recording of data as well as providing precise data for management. We are delighted to partner with SuperValu and Centra, helping us become the retail industry standard for excellence in food safety monitoring.”
Conclusion
FoodCheck greatly reduced the amount of time spent on HACCP for Centra Rochestown by greatly reducing manual checks of Fridges and Freezers, removing the need to print and complete paper records as well as streamlining and reducing the time spent probing food, recording deliveries & cleaning tasks and audit preparation.
The store has a complete and enviable record with regards to both HSE and EIQA audits. Since the store has implemented the FoodCheck system they have achieved and retained Emerald status with their EIQA records.
With the removal of paper to migrate to the electronic system, Mary found that all records are date and time stamped and cannot be retro-completed, preventing falsification. FoodCheck has a number of built in feature which help reduce the risk of human error all of which assisted with their immaculate records with audits.
With sensors continuously monitoring all cold storage units and with alerts notifying of any unsafe temperatures, Mary had peace of mind they were in full control of all food safety practices. With these failsafe procedures in place the risk of stock loss or a food safety incident were effectively removed making life easier for staff, management and owners.
This saves time, and allows staff to focus on the more important tasks at hand such as concentrate on the quality of food provided and assisting customers.

“We have Kelsius Food Safety System installed in the store now for a number of years, and to be quite honest, I couldn’t imagine the food safety system working without it.
I myself am very involved in the daily managing of the whole Kelsius System and would monitor records all day, so errors with staff especially new, are dealt with immediately. All records are signed off by managers, and this gives us huge reassurement that everything is running correctly. There were occasions when the system would have saved us a lot of money, as fridges and freezers alarm as soon as they need attention, hence problem dealt with immediately, and stock can be moved to another location.
With full commitment from Managers and staff in place you will never look back, and paperwork will be a thing of the past.
I would have no hesitation in highly recommending Kelsius to Retailers.”
Mary McGroarty. Centra Rochestown.
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