As some coronavirus lockdowns are being lifted across the United States, restaurants are gradually reopening. Some are operating indoors with limited capacity, others offer outdoor dining, and some are selling food for delivery and take out. One thing they all have in common is that cleaning frequency has increased dramatically, and hygiene standards are more important than ever.
Given the new environment in which restaurants are operating, Kline is announcing the 9th edition of its venerable Foodservice Cleaning Products study on the U.S. market, to be published in 2021. This new report will include updated research with hundreds of end users on how their usage and spending have changed in light of COVID-19 and how long they anticipate these changes will continue.
In the 2017 edition of this study, results confirmed the importance of food safety compliance in commercial kitchens and food preparation areas. Among end users of foodservice cleaning products, food safety compliance was the single most–important trend impacting their business. Employee training and compliance in relation to cleaning and guest experience ranked a close second. Minimum wage increases, green cleaning, and IoT and smart/Internet–enabled warewash machines held secondary importance. Social media and its impact on the business was the least important trend among foodservice cleaning products end users surveyed in 2017.
Seventy-six percent of end users have food safety management programs, and the vast majority (81%) manage them internally. Nineteen percent use companies like Ecolab, Diversey, or Steritech to manage their food safety management programs. Most foodservice end users are either “extremely” or “very” satisfied with warewash machine performance and warewash machine maintenance and service.
End user responses from 2017 compared to those from 2021 will reveal crucial trends and changes impacting the business. Learn about these and other important trends in foodservice cleaning products from Kline’s study. For more information, contact us.
