Elektron subsidiary cleans up successful trial with Food Standards Agency

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has successfully completed a trial using digital software from Elektron Technologies’ Cambridge-based subsidiary Checkit, the company said on Tuesday.

In the three month trial, five businesses from Cambridge replaced their paper based food safety management processes with Checkit’s digital solution, allowing environmental health officers (EHO) to monitor them in real time and detect food safety issues quicker.

David Davies, product and marketing director of Checkit, said: "We provided the businesses with a digital alternative to their usual paper-based checklist to give them a chance to see how technology can transform the way these everyday tasks are managed and monitored, and how it can facilitate smoother EHO visits."

The technology records all daily compliance checks and automatically uploads results to the cloud for storage, allowing for monitoring and alerts regarding anomalies.

The trial study is part of the FSA’s Regulating Our Future (ROF) programme which aims to modernise and improve the regulation of food related businesses in England Wales and Northern Ireland.

Nina Purcell, director of the FSA’s ROF programme, said: "The businesses involved liked this type of technology and found it more efficient than the current paper-based system. Our colleagues at Cambridge City Council found that having the data was useful as it helped them form a view of how well the business was managed and keep a better track on businesses between inspections. We are currently redesigning the whole system for regulating food businesses and we envisage new technology as being integral to that new model."

Real-time operations management provider Checkit’s food safety management system is already available for small businesses, with a contract win in September deploying the product at 70 locations around the UK on behalf of a leading retailer.

As of 1119 GMT, Elektron Technologies' shares were up 6.18% at 29.20p.