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REUSABLE FOOD CONTAINER�KING COUNTY

All 4 Reusing

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Table of Contents

Food Code Analysis

Project Overview

Assessment of Food Businesses

Food Business Responses

Implementation Plan

Training

Manual

Marketing

Plan

Metrics

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Project Overview

Supporting a food service business to implement and promote a refilling process of consumer-owned reusable containers

Project Plan

Overview

Legal Analysis

Food Code Revision Summary
Visual Handout

Food Business Research

Potential Food Business Partner List
Food Service Business Responses

Implementation Plan

Proposal Template

Training Manual

Refilling Process Fact Sheet

Marketing Plan

Mr. Adrian Tan – Policy and Market Development Manager, King County Solid Waste Division
All 4 Reusing Team, Seattle University:

Lena Takechi-Lam
Quynh Nguyen
Reina Kuwaye-Tamanaha
Brian Thomas

Objective

Our Team

Deliverables

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Food Code Analysis

Effective Date: March 1^st, 2022

WAC 246-215-03348 | Preventing contamination from equipment, utensils, and linens—Refilling returnables (FDA Food Code 3-304.17)

Related Food Code Section: WAC 246-215-04230 (1), (2), (4)

Contamination-free refill process for approval

Industry-provided take-home containers

Consumer-owned reusable containers

Before conducting any further research, our team did a legal analysis and summarized the Food Code Rule Revision that went in effective on March 1^st this year, specifically section WAC 246-215-03348 about Preventing contamination from equipment, utensils, and linens--Refilling returnables

This food code section has 6 smaller components that lay out the requirements for food service businesses to accept and refill reusable containers, both industry-provided take-home containers and consumer-owned reusable containers

Whether it is industry-provided or consumer-owned containers, food service business needs to develop a contamination-free refill process and submit it to King County Public Health for approval, in order to implement this new food code rule section

This food code section also references 04230 which highlights some requirements regarding dispensing equipment that is used to refill reusable containers

For the purpose of our project, we referenced a summary article of the Food Code Rule Revision by the Snohomish Health District translated subsections about consumer-owned reusable containers into simple language to make it understandable for foodservice businesses and consumer-facing communications

Containers need to be appropriately designed

Food containers can be refilled by the employees without any restrictions on the food types

Bulk, packaged, and non-ready-to-eat food can be refilled by the customers, however, ready-to-eat food items have to be dispensed via chute or gravity flow units

Beverage containers can also be refilled by customers

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Assessment of Food Businesses

Bakeries

Cafés

Pros

Portion Sizes

Translating Paper Bags to Containers

Cons

Variety of Products

Opportunities

Reusability Potential for Glass Containers

Food Trucks

Pros

Established Merchandise

Pre-Existing Customer Interaction

Cons

Kitchen Cross-Contamination Concern

Opportunities

Potential of Merchandise Production

Pros

Outdoor spaces

Easy Prepped Foods

Cons

Difficulty in Condiment and Extras

Opportunities

Cutting Costs and Potential Profit

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Potential Businesses

Seven Coffee Roasters Market & Café
Capitol Coffee Works
Zoka Coffee

Shikorina Pastries
Hot Revolution Donuts

Lil Woddy’s
Great State Burger
Taco Chukis
Hot Revolution Donuts�

COFFEE STORES

BAKERIES

GRAB AND GOS

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Food Business Responses

Name	Type of Food Offered	Customer Request	Process
Boon Boona Coffee	Coffee, tea; pre-packaged coffee beans	Beverages: many Coffee beans: none	Beverages (current): Contactless process Coffee beans (hypothetical): Coffee beans being grounded at the back Similar to beverage process
Café Vita	Coffee, baked goods, sandwiches and light meal items	Many requests for both beverages and food items	Beverages (both pre and during covid): Not contactless, but still safe Discount Food items (both pre and during covid): Contactless process

We visited two local coffee shops and asked if we could ask them some questions on their current refilling process.

Boon Boona Café offers a variety of coffee, teas, and pre packaged coffee beans. At the moment, they have refilled several customer owned beverage containers. Their current process is to take a customer's cup without a lid, make the coffee, and pour it without ever having contact with the container.

Hypothetically, they could ground beans in the back room and pour it into customer owned containers.

For café vita, they serve both food and beverage items. They've received many requests for refilling personal cups and lunch boxes. Their process is to take cups without a lid, fill it up, and return it to the customer. For food items, they place their items using tongs or gloves without ever having contract with the container.

They also offer a 25 cent discount so clients who use personal containers

After learning about the processes at the these establishments, we created a Mock Café... next slide

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Mock Cafe

Lattes
Cappuccinos
Tea

Smoothies
Iced tea
Frappuccino

Baked goods
Pastries
Cold cut sandwiches

HOT BEVERAGES

COLD BEVERAGES

READY TO EAT FOODS

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Implementation Plan

To be submitted to safety investigator
One-page document
Previously approved plans are exempt

Interest to implement
Managerial responsibilities
Employee responsibilities
Contamination-free refilling process description

Certified Food Protection Manager (March 2023)

Submission Requirements

Proposal Template

Looking Forward

We met with Mr Pui Shum, a Health & Environmental Investigator at Seattle & King County’s Public Health to clarify the legal requirements to implement this newly revised food code

First, food service businesses need to contact the safety investigator that is assigned to their business, this person is also the point of contact if businesses have any questions or concern about the implementation in the future

Later on, food service businesses also submit their implementation proposal to their safety investigator for approval

Next, the submission can be simple a one page document, I will expand upon the necessary contents in our proposal template

Any food businesses food service businesses that already submitted their plans and got approved in a previous variant will be exempt from this process are not required to re-submit to their inspectors

We created a one-page document that acts as an implementation proposal for Mock Cafe to safely refill customer-owned reusable containers

�This specific can be easily adapted to other coffee shops that are interested in implementing the same process and can be their referenced template

�In the proposal, Mock Café indicates their interest in implementing the use of consumer-owned containers for food and beverages

The proposal highlights the primary responsibilities of supervisors and employees such as servsafe certification, complete discretion of to assess containers’ cleaniness appropriate containers, and no contact to lip-contact surfaces on containers

contamination-free refill process description

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Training Manual Content

Training Objectives:

Prepare employees for handling reusable containers

Under the basis that Employees obtained Food-Handler Cards
Designed to elaborate on additional responsibilities

Guidelines & Responsibilities: (Step by Step Descriptors)

Conducting visual inspection
Handling customers with uncleaned containers
Preparation of foods using sanitary equipment

Cold, freshly prepared & warmed up, or baked foods

Preparation of drinks using minimum-contact procedures

Cold Beverages and Hot Drinks
Ensure Container Material & Customers Hold Lids

Management Assessments:

Creating model situations to Assess Employee Training

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Marketing plan: Promotions

Sales Promotions

Reusable cups to be sold at the cafe. They can sell these reusable cups to clients, with a promotion
Snap a picture with a reusable cup and share it for a chance to win a giveaway
Run a reverse promotion by changing their pricing policy to encourage the use of reusable containers.�

Sales promotions are a way to target customers and prospects to build awareness, gain speedy responses, and encourage trying a new product or practice. We recommend Mock Cafe to hold three types of promotions.

First, Mock Cafe can invest in reusable cups to be sold at the cafe. They can sell these reusable cups to clients, with the promotion that a free cup of coffee is included in the purchase.�

Customers who visit Mock Cafe can snap a picture with their reusable cup and share it on their social media to enter a drawing for a free coffee or deli item that will be randomly selected everyday for one week.

Lastly, Mock Cafe can run a reverse promotion by changing their pricing policy to encourage the use of reusable containers. Instead of including a charge for the single use cup in the original coffee price and offering a discount for bringing in a personal cup, we recommend charging 25 cents for a cup. This reverse psychology is similar to the idea of grocery stores charging for a plastic bag. This can encourage customers to bring their own cup, as they will be avoiding a charge for every coffee they purchase.

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Marketing plan: Communications

Communicate

Website updates
Text/emails
Social media advertisements

We believe that Mock Cafe can communicate these promotions through website updates, text/emails, and social media advertisements.

Website update:

We recommend updating any website the cafe may manage as they announce more information regarding their acceptance of reusable containers in their establishment.

Getting the information to consumers can be done through a banner, pop-up, or moving the information to visible parts of the website. With a click in with more details on the ways the company is implementing this practice, and how this helps the environment.

Text/Email recommendation to subscribers:

To reach targeted audiences and encourage direct response from our subscribers, we recommend sending out texts and emails as a form of direct marketing.

Social Media Advertisement:

Because word of mouth communications is one of the most trusted and credible forms of advertising, we recommend running the giveaway competition on social media.

In addition to this giveaway, Mock Cafe can create a paid promotional post to reach coffee lovers in the area. This can be done through targeting the audience towards bloggers, coffee enthusiasts, and people visiting nearby attractions.

Next is Reina talking about the metrics.

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Metrics

Survey

Consumer awareness

Attitudes

Satisfaction

Social Media

#MyBYOCup

Website clicks

Cost Analysis

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THANK YOU!

Any Questions?