In conjunction with Checkit and Cambridge City Council, we completed a three-month trial that saw five businesses in the Cambridge area replace their paper-based food safety management processes with Checkit’s digital solution. An EHO from Cambridge City Council inspected each business once a month during the three-month study to see how the digital records matched with conditions at the premises and to gather user feedback. During the trial, the businesses agreed that their normally-private data could be shared.
The study demonstrated the value of digital systems for food businesses, as an alternative to paper based systems, and recommended further research to test this approach with a wider range of businesses.
How the technology works
Checkit is a Cambridge-based company that has developed a real-time operations management platform to digitise food safety management processes. It replaces traditional paper checklists with smart apps and manual temperature readings with smart wireless sensors. All daily compliance checks are recorded using a mobile handset and the results are automatically uploaded to the cloud for storage. Through the cloud-based control centre users can access records remotely, receive alerts on any anomalies and use smart dashboards to track performance.