Taking appropriate customer safety steps is critical for grocery stores. This includes keeping their aisles and other customer areas free of hazards that could cause falls or other accidents. It also includes making sure the food they make available to customers is safe.
One type of food it is becoming increasingly popular for grocery stores to offer customers are prepared foods, such as restaurant-like meals. Consumers are turning more and more to grocery stores for these types of foods. Grocery stores that offer such products are sometimes referred to as grocerants.
An important thing to note as grocerants rise in popularity is that special safety concerns can arise for grocery stores when it comes to prepared foods. It can be key for grocerants to be aware of these concerns and take appropriate measures to address them, such as providing proper training to their employees who work with prepared foods.
Why is it so important for grocerants to take proper safety steps in their prepared food? Well, for one, safety mishaps could put customers at risk for food-related illnesses. In addition to possibly exposing customers to major harm, illnesses related to prepared food could also potentially expose a grocery store to significant litigation. Also, being accused of not acting safely when it comes to prepared foods could hurt a grocery store’s reputation, and result in customers trusting it less.
Grocery stores accused of serving unsafe prepared foods to customers may want to promptly seek out a skilled personal injury defense attorney’s advice, given the major consequence such allegations can have.
It appears that customer views of the safety of prepared foods at grocery stores are turning more negative. According to a recent report, the portion of consumers who believe that such foods are safe has dropped from 66 percent in 2006 down to 58 percent.
Why do you think this decline has happened? What actions by grocery stores do you think could help bring consumer confidence in the safety of prepared foods from grocerants back up?
Source: Food Business News, “Food safety concerns grow with rise of grocerants,” Erica Shaffer, Sept. 15, 2016
