Supermarkets Are Facing A New Food Safety Challenge

“What’s for dinner?" It’s the question every busy parent dreads.

Increasingly, moms and dads are looking for fast and easy options to feed their families. Supermarkets have heard their call. Today, more than ever, grocery stores are expanding their prepared food sections. Offering a one-stop shop for families where they can get sushi, pizza, tacos, pasta, or salad, all in one place.This makes life easier for families, but as a retailer, it can make food safety more complicated.

The Wall Street Journal reports that demand for supermarket prepared meals has nearly doubled in the past decade from $15 million in 2005 to $28 million in 2015. As the volume and variety of prepared food increases, food safety risk grows with it. According to the CDC, outbreaks linked to U.S. supermarkets more than doubled from 2014 to 2015. The most common cause is Salmonella, followed by Norovirus.

With the increase in ready-to-eat options, grocers are now facing the same food safety challenges that have plagued the restaurant industry for years.

In June, Whole Foods was issued a warning letter from the FDA citing numerous safety violations in manufacturing facilities where they produce many of their prepared food offerings. Costco has dealt with outbreaks of Salmonella linked to cooked rotisserie chickens and E. coli linked to celery used in chicken salad.

Food Safety Overhaul

As a result of these outbreaks, we’ve seen a lot of grocery retailers take initiative to overhaul food safety in their stores.

After receiving the FDA warning letter, Whole Foods discontinued the processing of meat, poultry, and raw seafood in the offending kitchen to avoid cross contamination.

In 2015, a Boise Co-op suffered from a salmonella outbreak in its deli. Taking steps to address the situation, the community retailer shut down its deli, thoroughly sanitized the environment, retrained employees on safety protocols, and color-coded cutting boards to prevent cross-contamination in the future.

Increased Employee Training

One of the major food safety challenges that grocery retailers face today is employee turnover. Supermarket workers are even more likely to come and go than traditional restaurants. As a result, employees are less likely to be well-trained in the latest food safety procedures.

We can see that retailers are taking steps to train staff better. The International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association has logged 6,465 completed food safety courses taken by grocery workers through August of this year, up from a total of 2,987 for all of 2015.

Currently, foodborne illness outbreaks at restaurants far exceed those at grocery stores, but experts say that the gap could narrow as more supermarkets expand into prepared food.

Check out our recent Food Safety Ebook to learn about common sources of food contamination and how to avoid them.