The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters.
Produced by Reuters Plus for
Disclaimer: The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters. To work with Reuters Plus, contact us here.
Behind the Scenes of
Professional Food Safety Standards
Food safety and public health leader Lisa Robinson provides an inside look at the Ecolab Schuman campus where many innovations powering the company’s advanced programs and products are developed.
The fast-paced restaurant and food-service industry is one of the most challenging and dynamic sectors. Professionals must deliver a quality product and experience for customers, meet ever-changing food safety and health regulations, and run a successful business. They must also recruit and retain talent, meet high standards of cleanliness and stay on top of food safety risks. A single food safety incident can damage their reputation almost instantly. Gathering data on health department performance to find improvement opportunities can be challenging, which is why more than 250 industry leaders overseeing 100,000-plus establishments rely on the Ecolab Health Department Intelligence platform for actionable insights to maintain their brand. Ecolab has several offerings that cater specifically to the restaurant and food-service industry. Let’s go behind the scenes with one of Ecolab’s leading experts to learn how the company helps customers excel.
Meet Lisa Robinson, vice president of global food safety and public health in Ecolab’s research, development and engineering (RD&E) unit.
Lisa Robinson, Ecolab vice president of global food safety and public health, RD&E, has more than three decades of technical experience in food safety.
After discovering the field of food science as a student at Michigan State University, Robinson worked in food safety for several corporations before joining Ecolab in 2019. A recognized industry expert, Robinson develops and drives the global food safety strategy for Ecolab across the organization. As part of her work, Robinson regularly convenes a global network of in-house subject matter experts to align on company goals and customer solutions. She attends conferences and trade shows to meet with industry peers, researchers and regulators to discuss the latest scientific findings shaping policy and impacting Ecolab customers. She also participates on several executive advisory boards to help advance food safety and meets with technical leaders to hear what is keeping them up at night.
Ecolab has more than 1,100 RD&E scientists, engineers and technical specialists worldwide. Almost half of them work at the Schuman Campus in Eagan, Minnesota.
Did you know?
Ecolab cutting boards come in multiple hues to help restaurants color-code specific tasks and different food types, such as meat and vegetables. Cross-contamination is responsible for 38% of foodborne illness outbreaks.
Ecolab provides effective cleaning and food safety solutions and training programs designed for the food retail services industry.
The campus includes vignettes where Ecolab tests its products firsthand. For the quick service restaurant industry, Ecolab develops solutions that deliver the best results at the lowest total cost. Its innovations include reducing water usage in warewashing and food production.
The Ecolab Schuman Campus, located just outside Minneapolis–St. Paul, contains 225,000 square feet of RD&E laboratories and facilities.
Robinson stands beside the International Association for Food Protection’s Black Pearl, which recognizes a company’s outstanding achievement in corporate excellence in food safety and quality each year. A company can only win the Black Pearl once; Ecolab earned it in 2006.
72% of restaurant employees say working at an ESC partner location would “help them stay.” Filling a position with a new employee costs a business approximately $7,578 each time.
Did you know?
Ecolab has more than 1,100 RD&E scientists, engineers and technical specialists worldwide. Approximately 500 of them work at the 90-acre Ecolab Schuman Campus in Eagan, Minnesota, which has RD&E facilities and laboratories that support programs like the Ecolab Science Certified™ (ESC) program. This science-based public health and food safety program helps partners advance cleaner, safer practices at the places we eat, stay, shop, work, learn and play.
An establishment that completes all program requirements will earn the Ecolab Science Certified seal, assuring guests and employees of its commitment to top cleanliness and safety standards. The ESC audit reviews back- and front-of-house processes and covers nine product categories: hand hygiene, surface disinfection, food contact sanitizer, floor care, degreaser, and dishwashing machine detergent, rinse aid, sanitizer and manual detergent.
Robinson demonstrates how customers would be trained to walk backwards with a mop as part of Ecolab’s education program.
The laboratory combines an array of floor types, including luxury vinyl tile, sheet vinyl and linoleum. Ecolab typically replaces the lab’s testing floors every 12 to 18 months due to wear.
Ecolab’s Facility and Floor Care laboratory contains 3,000 square feet of testing floors and temperature and humidity controls. The lab tests different cleaning chemistries to ascertain the cleaning efficacy of Ecolab products in removing grease, dirt and excess material buildup.
Ecolab works with commercial housekeepers and janitors to make products easy to use. In the demonstration shower, a senior RD&E program leader uses a spray bottle that is pumped rather than squeezed to reduce user stress and fatigue from the repetitive motion.
In hospitality, long-term care and front-of-house kitchen settings, Ecolab tests its Institutional Surface Hygiene solutions on different surfaces—both recommended and non-recommended—to help safeguard customer facilities.
Joining the ESC program provides meaningful benefits for businesses. Almost 9-in-10 customers say a business’s commitment to public health and safety factors into their decision to patronize a particular location. The ESC program can also help optimize business operations and improve employee retention. In fact, 72% of restaurant employees say working at an ESC partner location would “help them stay.” This translates into significant savings in recruitment and hiring: Filling a position with a new employee costs a business approximately $7,578 each time. During the ESC certification process, Ecolab offers coaching for businesses. “During our audits we can show the areas where they are performing well and those areas that need improvement,” Robinson says.
An establishment that completes all program requirements will earn the Ecolab Science Certified seal, assuring guests and employees of its commitment to top cleanliness and safety standards.
Did you know?
Robinson enjoys connecting with her customers’ food safety leaders as a thought leadership partner—and she can get hands on. She recalls cleaning refrigerators and floors at a customer’s restaurant and thinking how time consuming the process was to complete efficiently. “If it was challenging for me,” she says, “I can only imagine how challenging it is for them, and how we have tools that can help make these tasks easier.” By keeping the channels open for customer dialogue and feedback, Ecolab continuously improves its offerings.
In addition to Ecolab’s food safety solutions, the company is a leading advocate for water stewardship, offering tools, solutions and expertise to help its customers adopt smart water management practices.
The Ecolab training center welcomes associates and customers from businesses, institutions and government agencies worldwide to learn about the company’s products and services.
At the campus insectary, on-site entomologists study the behavior of pests to understand how to better control them and to ensure Ecolab insecticide products are efficacious. The pest RD&E studies guide Ecolab protocols, products and equipment for pest elimination.
The Ecolab EcoSure Food Safety Program, is another example of how the company elevates its customers. Operating across 100-plus countries with representatives that speak more than 30 languages, the program conducts detailed assessments of customer locations on food safety and public health issues, as well as audits on adjacent matters such as brand standards, employee safety and guest experience. It can also advise customers how to integrate data and digital technologies to improve their daily operations.
“We use our data to help customers focus on their highest risk operations and locations and help them become more efficient.”
Lisa Robinson
The Ecolab Health Department Intelligence (HDI) platform is invaluable to this effort. With permission to access their customers’ HDI performance data across their locations, Ecolab can identify customers’ best and worst performers and how to support them. “We use our data to help customers focus on their highest risk operations and locations and help them become more efficient,” Robinson says. “With AI and other technologies, we can help identify their worst-performing locations and help develop specific actions to take to turn those into their best-performing locations.” With experts like Robinson and robust RD&E facilities leveraging data and AI-powered technologies, Ecolab helps its customers grow their businesses, identify high-risk operations and ensure their practices are best in class.
Learn more about the Ecolab Science Certified program and count on a Scientific Clean™.
The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters.
Produced by Reuters Plus for
Disclaimer: The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters. To work with Reuters Plus, contact us here.
The fast-paced restaurant and food-service industry is one of the most challenging and dynamic sectors. Professionals must deliver a quality product and experience for customers, meet ever-changing food safety and health regulations, and run a successful business. They must also recruit and retain talent, meet high standards of cleanliness and stay on top of food safety risks. A single food safety incident can damage their reputation almost instantly. Gathering data on health department performance to find improvement opportunities can be challenging, which is why more than 250 industry leaders overseeing 100,000-plus establishments rely on the Ecolab Health Department Intelligence platform for actionable insights to maintain their brand. Ecolab has several offerings that cater specifically to the restaurant and food-service industry. Let’s go behind the scenes with one of Ecolab’s leading experts to learn how the company helps customers excel.