Chicopee will participate in the Food&Drink Expo in Birmingham UK, from March 25-27, 2012. Come visit us at stand E190.

The truth is that most customers don’t tend to think about how hygienic a food outlet is; but they do care.

The announcement by the Welsh government in December 2011 that it wants to be the first in the UK to make hygiene score displays mandatory (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/12/14/food-hygiene-ratings-are-good-for-business-says-health-minister-lesley-griffiths-91466-29949403/) illustrates how central food hygiene and safety is to people’s expectations of food outlets.

Welsh health minister’s Lesley Griffiths statement on the plans suggests such initiatives will increase the pressure on foodservice businesses to take food safety seriously.

She commented: ‘The mandatory display of hygiene scores will recognise food businesses with good food hygiene standards, and provide all food businesses with a visible incentive to improve and maintain good food hygiene standards.’

The first UK launch would follow statutory schemes in Denmark, parts of the US and Auckland, New Zealand.

Businesses that aren’t ready to proudly display high standards of hygiene and food safety at the entrance to their food outlets could soon face a rude awakening in Wales.

And for businesses elsewhere it’s a reminder of how important food hygiene is to consumers. It may not be the first thing on their minds when they book a meal at a restaurant; but they won’t be quick to forget a bad experience or news of poor food hygiene either.

And the popularity of schemes to show the hygiene standards of foodservice businesses show that it matters.

In addition to its listing as one of Tomorrow’s Cleaning Journal’s Top Products of 2011, the J-Cloth® 3000 was also awarded the Innovation Trophy for Best Product at the Europropre exhibition. The DIN-Certco seedling logo and Food Contact Clearance are further evidence that the J-Cloth® 3000 combines effective, hygienic cleaning with ultimate environmental friendliness. No other product can match it.

But Chicopee doesn’t give up the clean to give you the green. The J-Cloth® 3000 is every bit as durable and hygienic as Chicopee’s other renowned cleaning wipes. Its open-weave structure picks up more dirt and rinses more effectively than other wipes, ensuring long-lasting, effective cleaning power.

Available in five colours, the J-Cloth® 3000 also supports HACCP regulations for prevention of cross-contamination through colour-coding. It provides reliable, safe cleaning, use after use, and then will biodegrade and leave no trace behind.

Professional cleaning is all about effective, hygienic practices and products. The J-Cloth® 3000 combines these standards with a biodegradable, compostable product that is the leader in sustainable cleaning wipes. It’s simply the greenest clean available.

But the flipside to boasting about eco-friendliness is the need to deliver on your claims. Greenwashing – exaggerating your business’s sustainability – can be even more damaging than not applying eco-friendly measures.

So what does this mean for your kitchen? Well, a good place to start with establishing your eco-friendliness is actually in cleaning. If you can replace your cleaning products with new, sustainable alternatives then your kitchen could become an important part of your eco-friendly business.

Of course you won’t want to do that unless you can be assured the hygiene of your kitchen won’t be compromised by underperforming alternatives.

This is where so much progress has been made in recent years. With many companies working on alternative products, your food service business can make green cleaning part of its eco-friendly operations.

It’s important to make sure your supplies are approved for both product performance and environmental credentials – like the J-Cloth 3000 (http://www.chicopee-europe.com/by-name/food-service/j-cloth-3000), which received Innovation Trophy for best product during the 2011 Europropre exhibition for its combination of biodegradability, compostability and food contact clearance.

If you’re going to be an eco-friendly food outlet, make sure you know how to deliver on your green promises.