Food Safety

Sustainability /
Food /
Food Safety

Food Safety

At Restaurant Brands International, maintaining high food safety standards is fundamental to our business. We are committed to providing our guests across the globe with safe, high quality and great-tasting food, and we follow rigorous standards to meet this goal.

Our Vendors

Across our brands, food safety starts with a robust vendor quality assurance program that ensures preventative safety controls are in place – beginning with where we source materials right through to when the product is served to our guests.

The key controls required for vendors in our system include certification under the Global Food Safety Initiative scheme, the foundation of which is the Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points and Good Manufacturing Practices programs. We are mitigating potential safety risks by routinely conducting vendor audits when approving both new vendors and new products.

Our Restaurants

Our focus on food safety extends throughout the preparation and delivery processes for serving food to our guests. Our programs have been designed to meet or exceed local food safety and health department standards, and regulatory law. 100% of Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons restaurants worldwide are subject to rigorous food safety inspections on a regular schedule.

Additionally, our policy is that new menu items approved to enter our restaurants are reviewed and assessed for compliance by food safety and quality assurance professionals across our organization.

These individuals also work in cooperation with our operations teams to develop restaurant procedures and best practices for restaurant owners to maintain the safety of guests and team members. Franchisees are required to provide all team members with thorough training on safe food handling procedures, and best practices to both identify and manage risks effectively.

We maintain awareness of global emerging food safety trends, and are focused on continuously improving our standards to reflect the modern advances in food safety knowledge and practice.

COVID-19 Response

In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have worked with our restaurant owners to implement proactive and comprehensive measures to protect the safety of the food, team members, and guests in Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons restaurants around the world.

Stringent cleaning and hygiene standards have been deployed and continuously enhanced at all restaurants so that Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons restaurants are some of the safest places for guests to get food during this crisis. For instance, face masks are now mandated in countries with a significant presence of COVID-19, even where they are not mandated by law.

In the US and Canada, acrylic shields and contactless service have been implemented at most restaurants. A 'safe distance' rule is maintained in the dining rooms - whether communities require it or not. New tabletop signage designates which tables are open and which ones are reserved to help maintain safe distances. Tables and chairs are required to be sanitized after each use and hand sanitizer is available in the dining room for guests. Restaurants also benefit from a business model that allows for minimal contact with anyone other than guest’s friends and family they are sitting with.

Digital capabilities across all of our brands have been rapidly scaled, including the addition of hundreds of new restaurants onto delivery apps in the US and Canada and improving drive-thru experience, expanding mobile order and pay and curbside pick-up options so that the guest experience is both quick and increasingly contactless.

Team members worldwide receive thorough, rigorous training to ensure that all health and safety protocols are well-known and implemented. But equally important, we work with our restaurant owners to regularly check for compliance, and our owners continually remind team members that they play an important role in creating a dining atmosphere that gives guests a safe, comfortable and welcoming space to gather with friends and families to enjoy time together over a meal.

Click here to learn more about how our brands are supporting restaurant team members and local communities to respond to the challenges of COVID-19.

Creating a best in class food safety culture is the responsibility of everyone across our business and it is something that our guests can always count on.

Diego Beamonte

Head of Quality Assurance, Restaurant Brands International

Food:

Our Approach,
Commitments
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