Food Safety in Focus

September marks National Food Safety Education Month, bringing back-of-house (BOH) operational standards, technology, and food safety culture to the forefront. Thirty-four percent of operators ranked maintaining food safety and quality standards among their top three operational challenges across both FOH and BOH in the  2026 Restaurant Readiness Outlook, a survey of 400 QSR and fast-casual operators conducted by Censuswide, revealing insights into industry pain points.

To learn more, Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine reached out to Tom Woodbury, Director of Connected Solutions at Comcast Business. He also serves as a committee member with the Conference for Food Protection and is responsible for helping to author recommended technology-related food codes. 

With food safety being in the headlines, what do you see as the most critical news angle for a story on Food Safety Education Month this year?

The most important angle is closing the gap between knowing food safety procedures and consistently executing them. Training and policies matter, but CDC research shows that manager commitment, employee commitment, and adequate resources also shape whether safe practices are followed.

A strong food safety culture goes beyond checking a box; it becomes a part of how operations run, from how managers lead to how employees carry out their responsibilities. Food Safety Education Month is a good opportunity to reinforce that food safety isn’t a one-time training exercise or checklist, but something that should be woven into the fabric of day-to-day operations.

In what ways is BOH automation proving to be a critical lever in food safety and overall efficiency?

Back-of-house automation can make it easier for operators to manage food safety consistently across locations. Temperature monitoring is a good example, particularly because the FDA identifies improper holding temperature as a key risk factor most frequently associated with foodborne illness.

Automated monitoring can help operators keep a closer eye on cold-holding conditions and alert teams when temperatures fall outside established ranges, so they can act quickly. Other tools, like digital checklists, equipment monitoring, labeling systems and corrective-action workflows, can also help reduce manual errors, improve visibility and make it easier to confirm that key tasks are being completed. The added benefit is that many of these tools can also help save time, reduce waste and improve overall efficiency.

Would you anticipate automation will be even more of a factor for QSRs due to the cyclospora outbreak with operators looking to invest even more in technology?

Food-safety incidents such as outbreaks can prompt operators to re-evaluate existing processes and workflows and determine whether additional technology could strengthen their response. For QSRs, that may mean greater focus on automation that supports traceability, documentation, communication and consistency across locations.

At the same time, FSMA 204 is creating an additional forcing function as operators prepare for the Food Traceability Rule’s requirements and the July 2028 enforcement timeline. That will likely push more organizations to look closely at whether their current systems can capture, maintain and share the required traceability data efficiently. The key is not technology for technology’s sake, but making sure operators have the processes and systems in place to respond quickly to food-safety events while also meeting evolving regulatory requirements.

What specific BOH automated systems offer the highest ROI?

The strongest ROI opportunities tend to be technologies that address both food safety and day-to-day operating costs. Automated temperature monitoring is a good example because it can reduce manual checks and help operators identify refrigeration issues before they lead to product loss.

Equipment monitoring can similarly help operators address performance issues before they lead to downtime or costly repairs. Digital food-safety workflows can also create value by reducing administrative burden and improving consistency. Ultimately, the highest-return investments will depend on where an operator has the greatest operational gaps.

With food safety being a top priority for operators with 36 percent saying improving food safety and hygiene practices are a priority and 34 percent saying maintaining food safety standards as one of their greatest ongoing challenges, is it surprising those numbers aren’t higher? Did any other results surprise you?

Not necessarily. Operators are balancing a number of urgent priorities, so those percentages don’t necessarily indicate that food safety is less important. What stands out more is the gap between recognizing the risk and having the tools in place to manage it consistently.

For example, 46 percent of operators still rely on digital spreadsheets to manually record refrigerator and freezer temperatures, another 20 percent use paper logs, while only 14 percent use automated IoT monitoring. It was also notable that 20 percent said they weren’t confident cold-holding temperature tasks were being completed correctly and on time. That lack of confidence points to a broader challenge: it’s not enough to know where the risks are; operators also need a way to validate that the right actions are being taken to address them.

That’s where the combination of IoT and vision intelligence becomes particularly interesting. IoT can flag when a critical condition, such as temperature, falls outside an acceptable range, while camera analytics can add context around why it happened and help validate whether teams are taking the right action. Together, they can help improve consistency, visibility and accountability across locations.