Magazine: Quality-driven public sector catering

Anna Zoltai Head of Department National Food Chain Safety Office

The ‘Quality-driven Public Sector Catering Programme’ of the National Food Chain Safety Office (NÉBIH) started in October 2015. With this programme the office integrated the food safety and quality based qualification system of kitchens into the supervision of public sector catering units. Head of department Anna Zoltai has managed the programme, and our magazine asked her about the method used and the results achieved. She told that the programme utilises a point-based evaluation system, and the kitchens which get less than 60 percent of the points fail.

Until the end of August in 2018 NÉBIH did 6,563 assessments – these kitchens serve more than 1.5 million people. The inspections are unannounced and take 5-6 hours to perform. Kitchens that scored less than 80 percent of the points available had to submit a plan for correcting the mistakes; when this is done, NÉBIH pays a visit again to examine the kitchen. Those places that don’t cooperate and don’t correct the mistakes see their names made public.

It is good news that two thirds of the problems detected originated from a lack of information, so they could be solved quickly. Ms Zoltai’s experience is that the longer it takes to deliver the food which has been cooked, the worse its quality becomes. She believes that market players need to train their workers, and create recipes and adopt modern technologies to cook better quality food. NÉBIH supports the public sector catering trade and has recently reviewed the Good Hygiene Practice (GPH) guide, to contain even more useful information. //