How the Restaurant and Food Service Industry reinvented itself during Covid 19

Impact of COVID 19 on the restaurant and food service business

COVID-19 has clearly hit the food service sector hard, and there are likely to be more casualties before we return to normalcy. ?While pent up demand for coffee shops, restaurants, and pubs has facilitated partial revival,  footfall is lower than pre-COVID, meaning businesses need to keep reinventing in order to survive.

The fear of COVID-19 prolonging, and a hesitation to spend in uncertain times, might prove to be a death knell for some eateries.  Dining out is a social experience and with social distancing norms still in place, industry insiders are mulling over how to get past this obstacle in order to remain in business post-pandemic.

The restaurant industry employs around 7.3 million people in the country, according to a 2019 report of the NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India). Restaurants have never had it easy even before the pandemic. Real estate costs in metros are high and the current crisis has only worsened the situation for them. During the lockdown, many restaurants shut shop and many of these permanently.  The effects of the battle to survive have already started taking shape.

Heightened sense of hygiene awareness, amongst businesses and consumers

With a growing focus on hygiene and social distancing, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has spelt trouble for all, especially those in the restaurant business. The restaurant industry worldwide is facing an existential crisis, and if it wants to stay in the business,  adopting new hygiene and safety measures should be a top priority.

Some Changes

• Limited staff at work: Many restaurants and food chains have started working with minimum staff to avoid the spread of COVID 19 and to cut costs. Even with limited staff, restaurant owners need to ensure that all safety norms are in place and adhered to.
• Sanitization practices: While hygiene and safety precautions were always a critical part of running a restaurant, business owners need to take this a step forward and educate their staff on proper sanitization practices for self, equipment, and the workplace. This is a lot of additional work and related expense, but unavoidable during these troubled times.
• Contactless delivery: Post the opening of restaurants amid the ongoing pandemic, most restaurants and franchisees have shifted to contactless delivery for the safety of consumers. Digital payments, digitally abled menus,  and self service are some new methods to keep contact to the minimum.
• Precautions with suppliers: New norms are in place for vendor supplies with suppliers being screened at the entry points with necessary sanitization protocols in place.
• Customer confidence: While restaurants may have incorporated changes in line with Covid control regulations, seeing is believing when it comes to customer confidence. Repeated communication with customers on safety precautions is a vital step to restore and maintain confidence, especially as things open up and the danger of COVID still lurks in the background. All visible signs eg. signboards, wearing of masks, frequent sanitization of premises, insistence on hand sanitization at entry, and ensuring social distancing between groups go a long way in building customer confidence.

Covid-19  has brought many new changes to the restaurant sector, and many of them are here to stay. The food service industry has been proactive and creative in terms of reach and taste.  Changes that are sure to impact revenues, employees, and customers in the long term.

Importance of water in maintaining health and hygiene in restaurants and food delivery

In all this hullaballoo over Covid 19, a most important safety precaution may have been ignored to some extent. One major factor which determines the safety, quality and taste of foods is WATER. Water plays a vital role in maintaining food quality and hygiene in restaurants. Water is used for drinking, for food preparation, for mixing of beverages, and as a feed to water dispensers, ice makers, and coffee machines.

Most restaurants are invested in a commercial RO water purification system, which they believe will deliver consistently pure water and ensure safety. However, commercial water purification systems come with a plethora of challenges. From choosing the right system to repairs and maintenance, the life of a commercial RO water purification plant is riddled with problems, wasting precious time and money of the establishment. Worst of all, these traditional water purification plants have no way of informing the user whether the water is really pure or not. In the likely scenario that a traditional RO water purification plant stops functioning, two things can happen: preparation of unhygienic food due to the absence of purified water, and lowered productivity with resultant water shortages. Customers falling sick because of impure water is a grave threat both to the health of the consumer and the reputation of the restaurant.

How does one ensure that the water used in the restaurant is reliably and consistently PURE? Here too, Internet Technology can offer fail-safe and reliable solutions.

Cloudtap, the ultimate solution

The solution to the problem of inconsistent water quality is Cloudtap –Internet Water, which harnesses the combined power of AI (Artificial intelligence) and the Internet to help restaurants with smart water management in line with digital changes sweeping the world.

is a revolutionary approach to water purification brought to you by Alfaa UV, the pioneers and leaders in water and air disinfection solutions.

Cloudtap offers a simple but highly technical solution that combines various water purification technologies to always guarantee safe drinking water.  The combination of assured purity, no downtime, and online monitoring 24x7, make it a unique and path-breaking idea offering financial viability and complete peace of mind to the business owner. At the heart of Cloudtap is an extensive purification process that is extensively powered by technology. It ensures that customers get the cleanest water possible without ever having to doubt its quality.  In these days of water saving awareness drives, Cloudtap ensures that the right technology is used for water purification, reducing water wastage to a large extent.

With Cloudtap, restaurants, food service outlets, and cloud kitchens can be assured of a 24/7 uninterrupted supply of pure and consistent water, which will ensure optimum hygiene and clean water across all outlets. Since Cloudtap incorporates RO +UV processes along with sensor technology, it is possible to set water to pre-determined TDS levels, irrespective of the input quality so that the taste and safety of foods and beverages are never compromised.

During these uncertain times, Cloudtap - Internet Water will help restaurants and cloud kitchens to maintain consistency in food by providing 24/7 pathogen-free, clean and pure water so that restaurants and Cloud kitchens can deliver the best quality food to their consumers.

So ride the technology wave to be a winner in these unprecedented times. Adopt internet technology in water treatment along with other digital initiatives. To know more about how Cloudtap can help your business, please give us a call on: +91-9321005309 or write to us: crm@cloudtap.in