Welcome to Chopping it Up. I'm your host, Mike Hanlon, the senior Restaurant and Food Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Our research and that a bi's five hundred analysts around the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal. Today, we're joined by Christine Schindler, the CEO and co founder of Pathspot. It's good to see you, Christine.
Thanks for having me, Mike.
Happy Halloween, same to you. Got any Halloween plans.
You know, mostly just tackling the scary issues of food safety.
That's where I'm at today.
Nicely done, nicely done. I don't have a costume this year, but I'll be checking out nieces and nephews later. All right, why don't we start out by you telling the audience about your background and how pathspot came to be sure.
My background is in biomedical engineering and global and public health, and I had started my career on the research side of that world. And I spent time actually living and working in the developing world, some in the Kilimanjaro region, and I was working on how to build really low cost but medical grade tools and technologies, obviously for very
resource constricted settings in those environments. How do we make our medical click equipment that we're so fortunate to have in our hospital networks here domestically work when there's you know, no air conditioning and no sealing and.
No Wi Fi and no power.
And when I got back to the US and I was working full time in healthcare networks here domestically, I just started to see all of these public health issues here that could also benefit low cost, durable, accessible medical type tools, but for everyday public health issues. And one of them at the time was these massive issues around food boorn illness, which is still hitting our news desk today right people getting incredibly sick hospitalizations even deaths from
these outbreaks that cost brands tons of money. And often we look at it and we say, you know, oh well, well it was let us or you know, it was cereal. But looking at that and thinking these things don't spawn illness, right, like, what could we have done differently in our supply chain? How can we stop the spread when something does enter into our supply chain?
How do we actually detect this?
And that's what got me so excited to be on this mission of preventing food boarn illness?
All right?
Very cool?
And one of the products that Passpot offers are these hand scanners, right, and so I've seen them at a couple of conferences. Now, what conference attendees have the dirtiest hands?
Okay, I gotta be honest, it's definitely pretty rough. At marketing based conferences.
I think there's got to be something there.
No, But in all seriousness, this stuff is everywhere, especially when you're at a conference and you're mentioning you know, our flagship product, which is the Passpot hand scanner, And this device tackles the number one issue around food borne illness.
We know what it is.
It's food handling, it's hand washing behavior. It's eighty nine percent of the outbreaks that come are tied back to that in some form or fashion. And so it's a device that people put their hands underneath, flip them over, and instantly see if they have invisible contamination present on their hands, and then use that data to inform, incentivize and encourage proper handwashing and hygiene behavior across the restaurant environment.
And in a conference, you have situations where people are shaking hands with each other, you know, going to and from all these different sessions. So we see large spikes and contamination at conference season.
Yeah, and for the record, I was. I tested myself once at ICR and I came. I came through clean. One for one, I pulled.
Your scans before I before I came on this podcast.
I want to say, Mike, You're always good. It's all all kosher now good.
Good to hear. All right, let's see uh salmonilla lysteria now e cole a. I'm McDonald's. Twenty twenty four is a year. Is a year to forget when it comes to food safety. What's going on out there?
You know, this stuff is always out there, right, And the reality is.
These spikes or these instances, they draw people to the problem, But we're constantly fighting these bacteria with our customers day.
In and day out, and it comes from all different sources. You know.
I always joke like nobody walks into a restaurant with a vial of E. Coli, Right, That's not how it gets into our foods supply chain. But whether you know this is coming from contaminated situations and supply chain, coming from you know, team member and watching behavior.
We know how to stop the spread, and.
That's what we really focus on because, like you said, this stuff is everywhere and it's.
Not going away, all right, So let's dig into E coli a bit. Obviously, that's the hot news of the last week or so McDonald's and you know, I think there's about ninety people infected now, more than you know, more than two dozen in the hospital, one on one tragically passed away. So you know, the last three instances that I've seen in my space in the public restaurant chain arena, it was two there was let us set Chipotle and Wendy's and not Wendy's. And now there's onions
at McDonald's. So how does E coli get onto produce?
The reality is it can come in a lot of different spots.
And the more times, and this is kind of a general rule of thumb in the world of food safety, the more instances for food handling, the more times something could be contaminated. And that includes at a farm or at a produce center. That includes at different distribution and food manufacturing centers. That includes as it gets into team members'
hands and onto consumer's plates. Every single one of those counts as a food handling situation, and the number of times that goes up directly correlates to how likely there is going to be increase contamination from any number of.
Sources, right, And the reality is we'll probably never know.
You know, was it infected where There's so many different possible points. So what I usually try to focus on is, Okay, how do we reduce the things that we know increase the overall rate of transmission across these different vectors?
Okay?
Cool?
And can you kind of talk about what you think the impact to the brand could be for the McDonald's outbreak?
You know, I think.
More than ever, it's not just how consumers view one specific situation. Right. You hear a lot of people saying cleanliness is the new ambiadds like people are looking for ways to feel safe in their environments, both in how they they work and also how they where they eat. So it's a big topic of conversation in the labor dialogue in how people are choosing which restaurants to go
to and where to eat at. And I think how a brand response to that is also a really critical indicator in you know, their accountability, their responsibility, and their desire to make a broader impact and to tackle these issues head on. And I think it's also interesting because one instance of food safety challenge and this is my favorite part about being in the world of food safety.
I mean, I love being in the world of restaurants in general.
And Mike, you and I have talked about this, like the collaboration and the effort and the energy.
And the impact that you get to drive.
It's why I have never going back after making the shift for healthcare and how much.
I love being in this industry.
If you look at food safety, and there's another layer on that, this is a collaborative effort. One instance in one chain impacts how people view the safety of the supply chain and eating out in general. One issue in one grocery store impacts how people feel about ordering deli meat from any grocery store. And so it's not just about one brand or one instinct. It's about how do we as a society respond to the growing demands of food safety issues, and then how collectively across the industry.
Food safety so unified because it's something everyone needs to do to be able to make sure that our consumers feel safe wherever they eat. And we find that not only does investing in this help different types of technologies and tools and even just increased level of training and certainly on these programs that most brands already have.
Right, not only does it impact the.
Broader public perception and the reduction of these broader instances, but it also impacts the bottom line by investing in safety and using that to drive other operational efficiencies and creating a safe and healthy work environment for employees.
For sure, I was shocked to read that forty eight million people get sick from food born illness each year. So I feel like I'm.
Kind of probably even more than that because that's the ones that are reported. But how many times, like, let's be real, how many times have you gotten sick for food borne illness? Have been like we better go report that, I better go fill out a form, Like usually it's just like, all right, I'm going to have a rough night on the toilet, right, and then you move on to the next day.
So these things are happening all the time.
And it's also you know, this is a fun side back on that the vast majority actually of those reported food board illnesses come from people that are working in food service actually around these contaminants all the time when you're working in a food service environment, and so Actually, reduction in sick days is one of the things we often track when we install our system, because if we can help team members stay safe and have a safe work environment, you're also going to see less callouts from
people getting sick.
In their own restaurants.
Yeah, to your point underreporting, I'm like, I don't. I'm like, when was the last time I got sick from a restaurant? And then I'm like, well, at some points I've had stomach issues. Maybe I just figured it was a stomach bug, right, maybe it was actually something, you know, in terms of a food borne pathogen or.
Something you'll think of me next time.
Yeah, well I've never I've never reported it, So yeah, I guess that's probably largely underreported, which is mind boggling to me.
Right, that's like fourteen ish percent of the United States is getting sick every year. What are some of the things, you know, in addition to training proper hand washing techniques and things in that nature, what are some of the other things that restaurants can do to protect themselves.
Yeah, I mean hand washing is a crucial one, and so you know how you're actually creating actionable information on that because oftentimes the trainings right now, are you need to wash your hands once an hour for thirty seconds?
It's important And I mean not to.
Pick on you, Mike, but like that might be out your ear and then the other before you go to the next you know station. Right, Like, there's so many things to do in a restaurant, and so if you're not creating accountability and actual metrics around this, and that's why, you know, we really flicked the switch on that and we read really customized trainings based off the data. So we'll say to team members, hey, we need to wash your hands during the lunch rush because we missed it
last lunch rush. We got to make sure we get those in and look, guys, it was ring fingers. We know contamination gets in those rings, take them off or make sure you scrub your ring finger extra.
What do you see?
Contamination rates go down, hand washes go up, and you create a healthier work environment. So that's one big piece. The other components that we really focus on from a holistic safety solution set, because Patspot is more than just handwashing, although that's a critical piece to our hub. We have a robust platform to cover all aspects of food safety and ensure those are met and held, but huge one
is temperature requirements. It is wild how much has to go into monitoring propriate appropriate temperature of food itself, of ambient environments of food when it's on a prep station versus when it's cooler, versus when it's in a freezer, and so really tracking that food throughout the entire supply chain and making sure it's held at the right temperatures is something that can really reduce your rate of spread
of infection. Another big piece that people more often equate to sustainability for or waste is actually expiration making sure that food has not expired, making sure you're using food within the proper expiration limits. You know, that's a really big component of work that we try to help support restaurants in. And then all these different digital safety logs.
You know, there are so many of them, and let's be real, we've all been in the back of a restaurant when someone's like, oh no, an auditor is coming and they're taking a pen and going down the checklist and you hear the manager say, like, change the pen when you're like pencil whipping the logs And it's hard because I know how challenging it is to keep up with everything that's going on, and so whatever you can do to actually look at and really look at that
problem and think about as a restaurant operator, like how do we increase through book through these logs and make sure that they're actually done appropriately and how do we ensure that they're easy to fill out and seamless so that we're not in a spot where we're short.
Changing that and potentially opening ourselves up to it an issue.
So it sounds like you're aggregating a lot of data for your restaurant clients.
Tons of data.
And the interesting thing is all this data starts to play together. Issues with hand washing spike also get correlated to when things are expiring more quickly, or you can quickly figure out that when something was going in through the safety checklist, maybe the temperatures fell out of range because the doors were propped open. And so how do
we actually play with all this data together? I mean, data is only useful, especially to a very busy restaurant environment, if you're giving actionable things that are able to elevate the instore experience.
And then pull out nuggets.
Of information across the board that we can use to actually inform SOPs and adjust them to be the right SOPs because I think for a lot of operators, it's just really easy to go with a baseline set. Let's check our attempts once an hour, let's wash our hands once every thirty minutes. Sounds good, but it might not actually be right. Like there might be more fluidness to that.
There's probably a more dynamic nature of when you actually need to be doing these things and the right way to pull these different safety tasks together.
And I think the data becomes really compelling in that use case.
Yeah, it's really interesting. And I think when we spoke in the past, you said that a lot most a lot, if not most, especially like mom and pop shops, really just have a lot of this information in a binder.
Rights it's most locations have everything at a binder. That is really the most common use case is. And I've talked to so many brands and this scales all the way up to major organizations and it's like, all right, talk to me about your safety system, because I mean, the reality is it's also very customized and unique depending on the group, and we want to work to build
into their platform, not reinvent the wheel. And every single time someone goes into the back in the office and they come out and I've got a binder that's taller than my base, and they're like, that's what we fill out every single week. I mean literally, it's the background of my phone is like a picture of these binders to remind us like, that is what we're trying to solve for. Because let's be real, if you have a bunch of pieces of paper and a binder, you're not
learning anything from that. That's not helping elevate you. We're doing them anyway. Let's do it right and then be able to make a better and more effective environment for everyone.
Yeah it's great. Yeah, you're not cleaning any insights, You're not finding any correlations in that binder for sure.
Yeah.
It's stressful.
The auditor comes in and they're like, okay, what happened on three weeks ago Wednesday? You're like flipping through binders like trying to find us post it note where you did your corrective action.
We digitize all that. We got a digital binder.
Very cool.
Are there any other technologies that restaurants can use that you haven't mentioned already? To kind of avoid spreading pathogens and protect employees and customers.
I mean, a lot of this is just how do you train and encourage team members and how are you elevating team members. One thing that I think is so interesting is oftentimes when we start to install our system or we work with other platforms that offer trainings or other components, the most common thing I hear from team members is them saying, I know that my brand cares about me. Like, what do you mean, Like, well, my time matters, because I was going around filling out these
books I was doing like all these random trainings. You know. Now it showcases they're putting time and technology behind this because I matter, and my time matters, and my interaction with guests matters. And I'm like, that's so awesome. That's
exactly how they want you to feel. And that is why they're investing in these tools, not only to make sure it's done right, but to make sure they don't have to be wasting time, you know, doing things that we're taking hours on pen and paper and could be a way more.
Effective use caase.
Yeah, that's very cool. It's interesting that you say that because yesterday we had Starbucks earnings call and new CEO Brian Nickel talked a lot about visiting employees and visiting baristas, asking them about their jobs and figuring out, you know, how how can they make their lives and their jobs
easier for them. So, yeah, it's it's very important because you know, turnovers an issue in this industry, right, and if you can, you know, show here employees that you really care about them, you really do care about their health, I think can be a competitive advantage.
When we talk to team members and I've never met a chef or anyone who went into food service and was like I really got into this because I was excited about the safety logs, like no one, right, And so when you think about that, they got into this because they want to interact with guests. They care about food, they want to serve good food, they want to, you know, provide a positive experience for someone. You hear all those things all the time. Why do I choose to work
in the food service industry? Never once food safety logs? And yet team members are spending hours a day filling
out safety logs. And so if we can actually empower them to redirect the time to the things only they can do interact with guests, prepare great food, you know, bring that extra experience of welcoming people because they're not in the back, checking on the temperature cooler events, and then do all those things and make sure they're done right and get them the information they need to be
able to do their job. That's been one of the most exciting parts of working on safety is knowing it's happening, but then elevating everyone else working in the back of the house to do the stuff that they do best, that only they can do.
That technology is never going to be able to replace for sure.
All right, So this one, this one's really for me. This question, how do we perfect ourselves?
All right?
How do we.
Protect ourselves at home? I think I think I was Mexican in a past life. I make a mean Margarita's and I make a mean guacamole, right, But I'm afraid that the cilantro might get me one day. So what can I do to make sure I don't get poisoned by my own cilantro?
Well, one thing is that you can encourage your food supply and the places you shop and that you buy from to evoke a proper food safety standards. Like that's something that we as consumers do have a responsibility to do.
And you know, I think that people really respond to that when consumers.
Say it matters to me that my food is safe and fresh and clean, and it's communicated that it's been held at the right temperatures or with the right expiration, or you know, when they like that we have a hand washer of the day posted outside of a restaurant that we work with.
That makes a big difference. And then the next best thing you can do, honestly is just do a full and complete hand wash. And this means the whole happy birthday thing twice through.
And washing in all those areas that you don't think to wash it.
It's not just a palm situation.
If you take anyone listening to this right now, take one thing away from you right now.
I'm just gonna say, wash your thumbs.
Wash nails, wash your wrists, and make sure you hit those high risk areas because it's going to make you infinitely more effective and in not getting sick across your day.
That's good advice, all right. So my fate is in my hands, but I I think.
I watched in your hands.
But I think I'm pretty good about that. My son was born early and he was in the nick you for a while for a couple of months, six weeks, and they taught us how to wash our hands. It was a full two minutes getting in, getting into everything. So I think I have pretty good habits there. And then yeah, it's Montclair Whole Foods monthly, New Jersey Whole Foods. Hopefully they're they're on there, they're on top of things.
Shout out to them, let's get them on the platform.
Thanks for joining me.
Listen.
You make a topic that can be you know, kind of tough, pretty exciting. So that's a that's uh, that's a very good talent you have, Christine. Where can the audience go to find out some more about passpot?
Yeah, check out pathspot dot com. Feel free to reach out there. We'd love to hear your thoughts on what we're working on and any ideas anyone in the audience has on how we can keep elevating safety across the board.
And thanks to the audience for tuning in. If you liked the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. Check back soon for a discussion about restaurant trends with Tom Wagner, founder and partner at Restaurant Insight Monitor