Best Training & Food Safety Platforms for Restaurants

Once you’ve successfully staffed and onboarded your employees, it’s imperative that you keep up with their certifications and training, especially when it comes to food safety. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are about 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses reported in the US each year, and studies have shown that dining out is the second most common location for people to experience allergic reactions. 

Investing in the proper training and food safety education for your employees will not only promote a more sterile work environment, but will also help to improve public health by reducing the likelihood of customers experiencing a health emergency in your establishment. 

We’ve identified the top three platforms that make it easy for your staffers to remain certified and up to date on food safety best practices.

Who it’s best for

Enterprise or multi-unit restaurants looking to streamline their food safety tasks.

Things to consider

Jolt is a digital checklist tool that can help you standardize your operations when it comes to food prep and safety. It’s worth noting that Jolt’s pricing is more geared towards multi-units and chains.

Where it excels

Jolt’s digital solution allows you to eliminate all of the paperwork related to food safety and standardize your operational processes and procedures. With features that help you manage tasks, communicate, and keep your team accountable, Jolt makes running your operation more efficient. You can create detailed SOPs (including training videos) and upload photos in the app to ensure you’re checking everything off your list.

Feature overview

Jolt is a digital food safety tool that has other features to help you with operations management and employee performance.

• Measure performance with real-time reports

• Streamline onboarding with integrated training videos and documents

• Stay on top of tasks with checklists for food safety inspection, cleaning, safety audits, and kitchen food safety

• Get alerts about overdue tasks with text and email notifications

• Manage your team with employee scheduling, Jolt Time Clock, and communication tools

Support

Jolt offers email and phone support. They also have a Jolt Information Library, where you can find employee training materials and upload your own content.

What real restaurants say

“Jolt has been excellent so far! Their customer service team has been really helpful. Our rep always makes time on zoom for me when I need it. He has a lot of knowledge and is really kind. The lists. I can’t say enough about them! So, I’ll keep it brief, I love having the ability to create and customize so many lists for my team. It keeps everyone on track and I’m able to see what has and hasn’t been completed and go over any errors with whoever performed the task. The information library is really cool! Even scheduling is great, though, I think that could use a few tweaks. This is truly a one stop shop for us.” — Johnny T.

“I think my favorite function is the due date function. I also really like how easy it is to edit and customize our to-do lists. It’s great for following up with people who complete certain tasks because you’re able to see who did what and make sure things are done correctly. It’s a really fast app except if you don’t use it for a few days, then it takes a minute to sync back up. But all in all we really like how accountable it makes the whole team! I’m glad I realized that using technology actually makes things easier for everyone involved. I feel like we’re much more streamlined now.” — Jennifer O.

Pricing

Connect with the Jolt team to get a personalized quote.

Learn more about Jolt

Who it’s best for

Restaurants who are looking for modern ways to onboard, train, and educate their team.

Things to consider 

Currently Trust20 has limited language options.

Where it excels

Engaging training modules that don’t feel like training

Feature overview

Help your team build out the skills they need to run a safe and efficient operation with flexible, ANAB-accredited virtual courses.

• Allow employees to complete their training when it’s convenient with flexible timelines

• Eliminate the hassle of travel and scheduling with virtual training

• Ensure your staff retains info with interactive visual modules and assessments

• Allow managers to stay on top of their team’s training progress with email messages

Support

Trust20 is in the process of developing a full onboarding program, but in the meantime, they provide email support and a Help Center to help you get started and answer any questions you may have about the courses or tool. They guarantee a response within 24 hours.

What real restaurants say

“Overall, I love the platform. It was definitely needed when I was getting back into the restaurant industry. I had to go through to learn a little bit of the basics when it came to operating some equipment, food safety regulations in partnership with OSHA, and different policies that I kind of fell out of touch with. I felt like it was a great entryway tool to get people to the skill level that they need to perform a certain task — kind of like a tutor.” — John T. (Houston, TX)

“I really like the layout of the courses. They really gamify things to make them more engaging and fun, especially for visual learners. My learning style really lent itself to their course and because of that, I actually remember the things I learned!” — Mitch S.

Pricing

Teams purchasing two or more Food Handler or Food Allergen courses get a 20% discount.

Learn more about Trust20

Who it’s best for

Restaurants looking for a seasoned training provider with in-person training options in multiple languages.

Considerations

They offer book study materials, but it can get quite costly. For in-person training, it can take up to two weeks to get results, which can create issues for customers.

Where it excels

They are administered by the National Restaurant Association and are a premier provider of educational resources, materials, and programs to help attract and develop a strong industry workforce.

Feature overview

They have five different tracks to consider for your staff, all of which can be taken with in-person with an instructor, self-study, or online.

• Food Manager Training: They have everything employees need to get certified as a Food Manager. The course covers details about foodborne illness, how to prevent it & training for food sanitation 

• Food Handler Training: Their training provides a foundation of basic food safety practices for preparing and serving food, and they are continuously adjusting the material to meet changing regulatory requirements for every state

• Alcohol Training: A great way for employees to earn their alcohol serving certification, participants will learn the essentials of responsible alcohol service 

• Allergens Training: Safely accommodate guests with food allergies, by learning about how to identify allergens, best practices for allergy communication, how to prevent cross-contact contamination, and proper food labeling

• Workplace Training: Dive into a comprehensive suite of training programs rooted in the cultural and social issues affecting today's restaurant and hospitality work environments, such as unconscious bias, sexual harassment, and how to ensure safe deliveries from third party operators

Support

Customer care is available via phone, automated chat, and text during standard working hours: Monday - Friday, 8am-8pm EDT. They are closed on most holidays.

Pricing

Their prices vary based on the type of learning that you want to invest in for you or your team. In general, their Food Handler training is between $12-15, Food Allergy is $22, and Food Manager training can range from $65-195 depending on what you need to purchase to prepare for the exam.

Learn more about ServSafe

Our evaluation process

We’ve developed a process to find the best HR, staffing, and training systems for restaurants to keep things running smoothly when it comes to your employees. Here’s how we did it.

Surveys and other research with people in the industry

We conducted surveys and gathered feedback from operators and employees across different service models and segments with experience using these systems on a day-to-day basis.

Interviews with Back of House restaurant tech experts

We also gained insights from our staff of experts who have years of experience in the industry and with restaurant technology. 

Secondary research

All of this was supplemented with our own research and participation in product overviews and training sessions with vendors on their products and services.