Whataburger Makes HACCP User-Friendly

Safe & Sound program teaches science without frightening workers who must make it work

By Scott Hume, Managing Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 4/15/2003

Whataburger says it instituted a comprehensive food-safety program two years ago for its 600 quick-service restaurants, but Len Mazzocco knows better.

“It’s a mistake to think you can roll out a food-safety program and walk away,” says Mazzocco, director of training systems in the operations services department at Corpus Christi, Texas-based Whataburger. “An operation’s menu changes and maybe its kitchen design does too. Your food-safety procedures have to change along with them.”

Continual adjustments not only keep programs current, they impress on staff that food-safety procedures are important to the company, Mazzocco says. “You don’t want team members to have the impression that food safety is this year’s big push, that it’s just the latest thing,” he says. “You have to say to them, ‘Guys, this is part of operating procedures now and forever.’”

SCARY SCIENCE
Whataburger’s food-safety program is based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) guidelines, requiring that prepared-food and holding temperatures be continually monitored and reported. Equipment also is checked to ensure that proper temperatures are maintained.

Its program was dubbed Safe & Sound for several reasons, Mazzocco says. One was that branding it made it Whataburger’s own, reinforcing the importance the company accords running safe kitchens. A second was to make the name less threatening to employees charged with making it work.

“We integrated HACCP principles but we didn’t want to call it ‘Whataburger’s HACCP Program.’ That can be intimidating,” he says. “Employees start thinking about scientific tests and wonder if they can do it. We wanted food safety to sound exciting, but we also wanted to downplay the science.”

PHASED INTRODUCTIONS
Other lessons from the program’s first two years include a suggestion that new food-safety programs not be introduced to crew members at the same time other features—such as menu promotions or initiatives to improve order accuracy—are added. Give food-safety measures the spotlight as they are introduced and build a program in stages, integrating each phase into operations before another step is added.

Mazzocco also advises operators not to get carried away with technology. Whataburger asked the manufacturer of a data-logger (used for storing temperature information) to customize the device for its stores. Changes in kitchen procedures produced problems, leading the chain to test an industry-standard data template rather than its proprietary version.

“The next step is to have food-safety logic influence kitchen design,” says Mazzocco. “Now, when I hear someone at meetings ask about safety implications, I get goose bumps.”