Chartwells had no way to know if the correct ingredients were being supplied or used, whether the correct medical conditions were being catered for or if their menus were correct. Remedial or corrective actions were being completed by spreadsheet or email, which meant they were being forgotten and had no real audit trail to follow-up.

Paper logbooks were hardly worth printing: they were tedious to complete, impossible to verify and tempting to stick in the ‘to do’ stack in a busy kitchen.

It was a struggle to meet customer expectations consistently and this was damaging revenue and risking their customers’ health, which was a critical concern.