Easy ways to improve hygiene in food trucks

Offering tasty, filling, and diverse dishes, food trucks have already found their place in Poland, not only at various festivals, but also on the streets of big cities and on mountain, seaside, and other holiday resort promenades. Unfortunately, while enjoying delicious meals and snacks outdoors, it can be difficult to ensure proper hygiene for customers with dirty hands.

A clean pleasure of eating

We are taught not to eat anything with dirty hands already in kindergarten, where thanks to various, often innovative and using the latest educational technology programs, we learn what germs and bacteria are and how harmful they can be to our health. It's no wonder that for many people, buying even the most pleasantly smelling and presenting food in a mobile gastronomic point, which does not allow for hand washing before a meal, is a significant problem that affects the decision to buy a meal. According to research by Tork, an international manufacturer of hygiene products and solutions, including soap and paper towel dispensers with consumables and cleaning agents for surfaces in contact with food, as many as 43% of people give up buying food offered by food trucks and other small gastronomy facilities precisely because of the lack of accessories to ensure hand cleanliness.

Soap on wheels

It may seem that customers who attach great importance to the hygiene of their hands are a smaller group, paying attention to the transmission of germs and bacteria while buying food from small, mobile food trucks selling their products in urban spaces, close to busy streets or in areas with high traffic. However, it turns out that the need to clean hands before a meal is universal and makes itself known in any conditions. Tork company found this out when they prepared a special truck for the food truck convention in Rio, as part of the "Soap on Wheels" experiment. The crowds quickly gathered around this vehicle offering soap and disposable paper towels, looking for a way to wash their hands before ordering a meal from one of the remaining food trucks. As you can see, customers not only care about eating a warm, tasty and aesthetically pleasing meal - they also want to consume it in the most hygienic and suitable conditions.

On the path to increased hygiene

Ensuring consumers ways to ensure a higher level of hygiene is not as difficult as it may seem. A small change that can have a big impact on cleanliness is simply introducing a publicly available napkin dispenser, which allows for easy dispensing of small paper tissues that can be used to wipe hands, mouth, and even clothing if necessary. To be positively perceived by customers, it is worth going a step further and equipping mobile kitchens with soap dispensers and antibacterial liquids, allowing for quick and convenient hand disinfection without creating additional mess or using extra water. When caring for cleanliness, it is also important to maintain order, which can be easily achieved by designating places for trash and paper towels and placing appropriately sized waste bins in them.

Pleasure with usefulness

It is worth remembering that providing customers with the opportunity to wash their hands not only increases hygiene and avoids potential food poisoning from eating with dirty hands, but also strengthens the relationship with the consumer. Visitors to small gastronomy and mobile food points always appreciate the chance to freshen up and eat their meal in the most favorable conditions, and providing them with paper towels and napkins will certainly be a gesture that they will appreciate and remember.

Ryszard Kurek