Restaurants to Ensure Contactless Dining Post COVID-19 Era

By Puja Gupta

In addition to its fatal effects on human lives and livelihoods, the pandemic has instilled fear in people. This will create a grim future for the restaurants industry in a post COVID-19 era.

The emphasis is on maintaining social distancing and hygiene, and restaurants may have to undergo restoration processes to ensure contactless dining to bring back diner confidence as they resume operations.

Dining out and restaurant tech platform, Dineout launched a eWhitepaper' that lists down restoration guidelines for the industry on staff management, staff health and safety, restaurant space sanitisation, food safety, social distancing, inventory management and measures for takeaway and delivery business models.

It was released by the Additional Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Rupinder Brar over a digital press conference on Monday.

Ankit Mehrotra, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dineout said: "As the world negotiates the enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our interaction with the outside world will reorient in both the short and long term for the sake of personal hygiene and public health. These post-COVID sensibilities are likely to have an enduring impact in how the country's food and beverages industry is expected to operate, and the eReinventing The Wheel: Dining Out In A Post-COVID Era' Whitepaper is our way to help Indian restaurateurs comprehend and adapt to this enew normal' and the rapidly evolving demands of Indian diners. We aspire to empower restaurateurs with our tech innovations to help fight this crisis, and reassure them that the human desire for good food & good time with loved ones will never go out of vogue."

Dineout launched a eWhitepaper' that lists down restoration guidelines for the industry on staff management. Pixabay

Brar said: "In the past, humanity stands witness to the opportunities created out of the challenges people have faced. And this is another one from them, a situation which we are facing all over the world. As rightly said by Dineout, technology can always be used in a big way in such situations. I am glad to see through your initiative that technology can be used to create a safe environment for everyone, and hence re-assuring that basic protocols while dining out are in place."

Here is a summary of recommended practices for the restaurant industry:

Staff Management

Be masked at all times, regular temperature monitoring, advisory for staff, advise diners

Staff Health & Safety

Allowing unwell staff to rest, regularly monitoring staff health, training your staff with best practices, keeping safety kit handy for staff, monitor restaurant premises.

Kitchen operations

No entry for un-sanitised material and staff, sanitise all surfaces, sanitise all equipment, separate are for used dishes, separate window for delivery and takeaways, social distancing inside the kitchen.

Restaurants will have to be extra careful with hygeine. Pixabay

Inventory handling

Understand your supply chain, separate sanitisation zone, designate staff member for raw materials.

Dining area and bar

Modified seating plan, sanitisers for diners, eSanitised for you' labels, fine air quality index, optimum water quality values, maintain proper indoor environmental condition, consider a reservations-only business, limit staff in the area.

Tableware

Thorough silverware cleansing, clean hand-towel and table cloth, serving platters must be fumigated, use UV sterilisers, viewable washing areas, eliminate unwanted table decor.

Extra care should be taken in the kitchens. Pixabay

Delivery and pick-up orders

Sanitised and temperature control delivery, avoid cross – contamination, enable "no touch" deliveries, designate pick-up zones, increase cleaning frequency and disinfect high-touch surfaces, adopt plexiglass for area separation.