Application of the dictionary of activities to the food safety management system

Abstract

Food has become a tourism product of high consumption thus requiring an appropriate food safety management system. Undoubtedly, the quality of the product is more important than the decoration, the service and even the prices. Food safety management has been implemented in many contexts, through the application of the HACCP system, but research on the topic focusing on the management of processes have been very scarce; hence, the objective of the present study is the application of the dictionary of activities to food safety management in a restaurant in the tourism destination of Varadero, Cuba. The importance of food safety for the customers justifies this study. Food safety and quality affect the consumers’ intention of return and their opinion about the tourism destination. This study draws on the methodology of Nogueira (2002) for the process improvement and on Trischler’s (1998) for the added value analysis. Different tools were applied like the survey, brainstorm, process map, AS-IS analysis, and process sheet. The study took place in a restaurant in the tourism destination of Varadero, Cuba, from January to May. The research revealed many activities that do not add value to food safety guarantee, and enabled to put forward three indicators to assist the restaurant management. It is concluded that the use of the dictionary of activities improved the food safety and quality management process. The dictionary allows the identification of the activities that add value to the safety management system, contributing to process effectiveness, and this is the main contribution of the research.