Next time you find yourself in a chic café or perhaps a cosy neighbourhood coffee shop, look around.
Ditto any one of the major franchised take-away outlets or their cohort of independent cousins. Do likewise in a growing number of restaurants.
The common denominator is a food and beverage industry on a binge – and its splurge is there for all to see in their desire to display their goods via impressive and eye-catching signage and menu boards.
It’s all being driven by an increasingly competitive marketplace, a more eagle-eyed customer spoilt for choice like never before, and an appreciation among the more shrewd business people in the food game that while their exotic dishes with a splash of the extraordinary, their coffees ground from beans gathered high in the mountains of Colombia and the excellent service customers receive time after time remain central, now more than ever it needs to be seen to be consumed!
Weigh this against a food and beverage industry that operates in accordance with the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point – or HACCP – certification criteria, where the focus is uppermost on hygiene in order to produce safe dishes and serves that reflect quality in every sense.
They know, too, that even if cleaning and disinfection is performed daily, few surfaces or pieces of equipment are sterile. Bacteria that may directly or indirectly cross-contaminate food during production can be found on surfaces such as conveyor belts, on walls, on the floor and, of course, on signage and menu boards.
And that’s where HACCP-certified products such as VitrineMedia’s backlit static LED screens can at lease allay one area of concern – and probably goes a long way to explaining why we’re cleaning up, literally and figuratively, in the hospitality arena.
The HACCP approach considers risks presented by physical, chemical and biological hazards through preventative measures in the food manufacturing and preparation environments.
And without wishing to bore you with a micro-organisms lesson – which I happily concede is not my forte – let’s just spend a moment longer on this vital aspect.
The Hazard involves identifying any risks in the process, among them contamination exposure; while the Analysis deals with determining how severe the risk might be and how likely it is to occur. Two ticks for the VitrineMedia products.
Then there’s the Critical component – or the precise moment in the process when risks are likely to present themselves. That’s another tick for VitrineMedia.
And finally, there’s the Control element and Point. The former identifies preventative measures we can call upon to control and manage the hazards; the latter shines a light on the specific locations of required control and monitoring activities. And yes, two more ticks for VitrineMedia.
Being HACCP certified gives the VitrineMedia menu board and general signage screens a number of significant advantages over competitive products, most notably the textile – or fabric – light boxes.
For starters, the displays are sealed behind a transparent screen, creating a most effective barrier against bacteria. The screens, too, are hardy and won’t fade or discolour when cleaned with powerful antiseptic cleaning solutions, again giving bacteria the big bird!
Then there are the displays themselves. Printed on our large format and dedicated latex printer, you are assured of the very best possible image, brimming with cleanliness and sharpness, where exceptional clarity, contrast and saturation leave textile light boxes – and digital displays, for that matter – in the shade.
Add the cold white light generated by the VitrineMedia to produce true-to-life visuals with a knack for drawing the unsuspecting sole to their imagery and messages and you know you’re onto a healthy winner!
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