Heightened consumer awareness, coupled with stricter regulations, is driving the hospitality industry to prioritise food safety like never before. As a result, food safety in 2025 is set to be a pivotal year for innovation and compliance, with hotels setting new benchmarks for food safety excellence and guest satisfaction.
In this blog, we’ll explore the key opportunities and challenges hoteliers may face in the year ahead and how management can navigate the growing complexities of day-to-day operations.
Food Safety Priorities Taking Centre Stage This Year
With change comes new opportunities for hoteliers to adapt and improve their current processes, but knowing where to start or what to prioritise can feel overwhelming. Here are three priorities hotel management teams should have on their radar this year:
Digital Compliance Tools
Manual paper-based systems are still surprisingly common in the hospitality sector – but they’re no longer as sufficient. Digital compliance tools make food and safety a breeze by removing the possibility of paperwork being lost, incomplete, or illegible. This helps hotels to be audit ready 24/7, with fully traceable records for tasks including:
- Temperature logging
- Food storage and preparation
- Kitchen cleaning and sanitation
- Inventory tracking
- Allergens and dietary requirements
- Monthly spot checks and internal audits
Cloud-based compliance software is even more useful for hotels with multiple venues, providing consistency in record-keeping across the board. It also makes it easy for hotel managers and operations directors to quickly identify any specific locations which are underperforming, based on data and reporting, or spot any shared areas of concern, such as a gap in staff training.
If an unexpected visitor arrives (i.e. an Environmental Health Officer), management will have everything they need to hand. This reduces the risk of non-compliance, which can result in low hygiene ratings, costly fines, or temporary closure where defects are found – all of which can damage a hotel’s reputation and bottom line.
Sustainability and Waste Reduction
Sustainability remains a hot topic in 2025. By getting rid of paper-based systems and ‘going digital’, hotels can significantly reduce printing costs, paper consumption, and associated energy usage.
Although this may seem like a small change in the grand scheme of things, a number of small changes can have a collective impact, helping hotels to reduce their environmental footprint.
Dedicated to their mission of being sustainable and customer-focused, The Bay Fish & Chips in Aberdeenshire partnered with Navitas Safety to switch to digital food safety processes. Here’s a quote from their case study:
“We’re using less paper and are more efficient. Switching to digital processes ensures there’s no mistake allowed and temperatures are always optimal. So it helps us cut food waste and paper use, a key aspect of sustainability alongside the sustainable local products we’re using” – Chief Director Calum Richardson.
In addition, hotels are under pressure to adopt eco-friendly practices, from sourcing sustainable or local ingredients, to minimising food waste. From April 2025, hotels producing over 5kg of food waste per week will need to segregate this waste from general refuse. It will then need to be collected separately to ensure it’s processed correctly or recycled, reducing the amount going to landfill.
Allergen Management
Food allergies and intolerances are more prevalent than ever and laws are continuing to emerge to make obtaining accurate information by consumers as simple as possible. Natasha’s Law became a cornerstone for change in 2021, improving allergen transparency by establishing the legal requirement to clearly label all allergens on food products that are pre-packed for direct sale.
With a number of fatal food allergy-related cases hitting the headlines over the past few years, allergen management continues to take the spotlight. To ensure gold standard guest satisfaction and safety, hotels should:
- Have clear allergy information and labelling systems in place
- Have clear processes for food handling and storage (to avoid cross-contamination)
- Maintain a simple means of communication between all parties starting with suppliers and ending with consumers.
- Train staff on allergen awareness, with staff required to have sufficient food safety training appropriate for their role and responsibility, such as a Level 2 or Level 3 Food Hygiene Certificate.
Need more help? Check out our free Allergen Management Guide to make sure you’ve got all allergen management criteria covered, or download our free Allergen Checker.
Food Safety Challenges Hotels Will Face in 2025
While these trends present the opportunity for hotels to positively reshape their food safety practices, they come with their own unique challenges.
Adapting to Evolving Regulations
It can be tricky to stay on top of all new regulations, which is fundamental for food safety compliance. A proposed law which hoteliers will want to keep an eye on this year is Owen’s Law, supported by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
The push for Owen’s Law began following the tragic death of Owen Carey in 2017. Owen, who had been out celebrating his 18th birthday, suffered a fatal allergic reaction after consuming a meal that had been incorrectly described. Despite informing the server of his multiple allergies, including a severe dairy allergy, Owen was not made aware that the chicken burger he ordered had been marinated in buttermilk.
If introduced, Owen’s Law will make the listing of allergens a legal requirement, such as on menus. Hotels may wish to prepare now by adapting their menus to include clear written allergen information for each dish (such as recipe specs). Keeping this up-to-date at all times may be challenging, especially if there are frequent ingredient changes, or new dishes added, but this is where staff need to maintain an open line of communication (especially between kitchen and front-of-house teams), and where managers need to implement robust version control to make sure the menu that’s in front of customers is the newest version a hotel has on file.
Compliance software providers will build their software with regulations in mind, keeping it updated to reflect industry changes. This should provide reassurance to hoteliers and remove some of the pressure that comes with having to have eyes and ears on the ground at all times!
Managing Cross-Contamination Risks
With guests’ diverse dietary needs and preferences, managing cross-contamination risks has become more complex. Hotels must have clear, organised systems in place for the handling and preparation of food, with strict protocols in place for different requirements.
Having a designated equipment ‘kit’ is best practice for this, with a colour-coded system for cutting boards, knives, and other utensils. Separate areas of the kitchen should also be used for allergen-free foods as an extra measure to protect guest safety.
As mentioned earlier, staff training plays a crucial role in allergen management and preventing cross-contamination. Digital compliance tools can help to reinforce this by getting staff to document, fill in, verify, or follow step-by-step cleaning and cooking protocols.
Balancing Cost Efficiency with the Need for Cutting-Edge Safety Practices
Going from paper-based systems to digital software which require an investment, but by saying goodbye to paper trails in 2025, hotels can actually save time and money.
A paperless food safety system helps to reduce labour costs, operational efficiency, and minimise compliance risks and associated costs. Non-compliance with food safety regulations can result in low hygiene ratings, costly fines, or temporary closure where significant defects are identified – all of which can damage a hotel’s reputation and bottom line.
In England and Wales, there is no cap on the amount a court can impose for breaches of the Food Safety Act. A prison sentence of up to two years is also possible for the most serious offences.
A cloud-based platform helps with accountability by making it as difficult as possible for staff to ignore, or forget to fill in their day-to-day documents and checklists (they will also receive alerts and reminders for tasks such as temperature checks and cleaning schedules). And if an environmental health officer calls – as they can, unannounced – an establishment will be able to provide any necessary documents at the click of a button.
How Navitas Safety Can Help Hotels Stay Ahead of the Trends
Our digital food safety software is built with compliance in mind, supporting proactive management with a series of 17 ready-made templates, and custom options.
Whether you’re looking for help navigating the opportunities and challenges that 2025 brings, or securing your first 5* rating with confidence, we can help – get in touch with our team and let’s make this your best year yet.
