Calorie Counter: First health food restaurant in Sri Lanka to have fully automated HACCP system

Sri Lanka’s pioneering health food restaurant chain Calorie Counter signed an agreement with Swiss Advantage Systems Ltd. to implement the PEx Software – a fully automated Food Safety Management System with the view of obtaining HACCP certification for all their locations in Colombo. 

HACCP is a globally accepted certification system built around seven principles including conducting hazard analysis of biological, chemical or physical food hazards, determining critical control points, establishing critical control limits, establishing a system to monitor control of critical control points, establishing corrective actions, establishing procedure for verification to confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively and establishing documentation and records.

Issuing a statement Calorie Counter Founder and Managing Director Duaine Peiris said their decision to invest on the PEx Software was a demonstration of the organisation’s commitment to their customers to ensure safe food. “PEx Software has helped us to bring world best practices in how food safety is managed and reported in most highly developed countries. With interactive dashboards in all kitchens, the staff is provided with timely information when hazards are detected and when routine tasks falls due,” he added. The system freezer and chiller temperatures are automatically monitored and when temperatures fall below critical limits, auto alerts are sent by SMS to responsible staff for immediate corrective action. This way the management is constantly kept informed of any failures in critical control points which also include incoming raw food temperatures and cooking temperatures. When routine tasks are due auto red alerts ensure no task is left unattended that could give rise to a risk in food safety. 

Verification activities are captured by operational staff using mobile phones and transmitted to the management dashboard, where the top management has a complete view of all food safety activities in all their food serving locations in Calorie Counter’s outlets in Colombo and Galle Fort. 

Swiss Advantage Systems Managing Director Malik Perera said, “Calorie Counter is the first small category restaurant in Sri Lanka to implement the PEx Software for their food safety management complying with HACCP international standards. Obtaining HACCP Certification is very challenging especially for small businesses due to the very stringent requirements for food safety therein. Managing employee hygiene, cleaning and sanitising of equipment and premises, controlling of suppliers, implementing best practices in food transport, handling and storage including maintaining minimum temperatures when receiving raw materials, etc. are some of the challenges the management has taken up to meet with requirements. With this transformation of introducing world best standards the mind-set of all staff is also being changed to view food management in a completely different way.”

Reiterating their commitment to their patrons, Duaine also noted, “The PEx Software from Swiss Advantage has helped us to automate all above processes with zero paperwork to be done. Therefore we will be the first in Sri Lanka to implement this state-of-the-art automated system which will be completed within two weeks. With the auto training module included in the PEx Software we plan to continuously train all staff with the view of strictly enforcing a zero tolerance policy relating to food safety. Once implemented the system will enable Calorie Counter to further our commitment to improving food safety practices in the restaurant sector. My personal aim in starting this restaurant was to see Sri Lanka becoming a healthier nation and we will do our utmost to ensure that food served and the service we provide is up to the expectations of our loyal patrons.”