March 30, 2020, New York, NY— Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there hasn’t yet been a clear guide for restaurants regarding food safety standards and practices. GoParrot ( https://www.goparrot.ai/) founder Yaniv Nissim has stepped up to the plate to address this gap. Nissim, along with doctors who specialize in virus control and food safety, has created new standards for delivering food during this time of COVID-19 so that consumers can feel reassured when they order in.
Guidelines collaborators include Nissim, whose company provides technology that supports touchless food delivery, as well as a PhD and College Professor, who has published over 50 papers in the area of food safety, and the Chief of Infectious Disease at a Major Academic Medical Center.
"These guidelines are the elements that have been missing throughout the COVID-19 conversation,” said Nissim. “And where there’s uncertainty, there is concern.”
According to Nissim and his panel, food and food containers have not been identified as ways to get or transfer the virus. It’s the person-to-person contact that is the culprit.
Furthermore, as Nissim explains, “as a matter of course, restaurants already follow regulations put in place by the FDA, CDC, and USDA designed to keep people healthy. These include proper handwashing and frequent cleaning of food preparation surfaces.
But at times like these there is the opportunity to go above and beyond.”
Extra precautions that Nissim and his experts are recommending include:
By the restaurant:
- Requiring anyone with COVID-19 symptoms to stay at home, out of the kitchen, and out of delivery vehicles
- Going beyond cleaning and sanitizing food preparation surfaces to cleaning and disinfecting them with agents proven to kill the COVID-19 virus on contact
- Asking delivery people to leave orders on the porch or outside the front door and then texting to let customers know they are there—this touchless transfer means that all menu charges and tips must be pre-paid online in advance by credit card
- Having delivery personnel carry and use hand sanitizer between each and every drop off
By the customer:
- Transferring food received from its packaging to a plate
- Throwing away the packaging, the bag, and everything inside the bag
- And most importantly, washing hands with soap and water after unpacking the delivery—and right before eating
Nissim is making the guidelines available to restaurants in the form of a certification badge for their websites to not only demonstrate the restaurant's commitment to these new COVID-19 Food Safety Standards, but also give customers a few easy steps to take on their end as well.
About GoParrot
GoParrot provides high-end ordering technology to restaurant chains that do not have the capabilities or funds to develop it on their own and don’t want to pay the exorbitant fees to the popular delivery apps and companies. In addition, GoParrot allows restaurants to keep their analytics and customer relations, bringing the restaurants and their customers closer together through exceptional customer service. The company currently works directly with hundreds of restaurant brands, with access to over 400,000 restaurants through Square and Toast and delivery integrations with national and local partners including Postmates, Doordash, and Relay.
