A food-safe sampling routine for new menu items in company-owned cafes.
A new product sampling checklist is the routine a company-owned cafe or QSR outlet follows when it offers customers tastes of a new menu item: the recipe card is followed, allergens are labelled, the sampling station at the counter or front of house is clean, portions are small and consistent, food is held at a safe temperature, and customer feedback is captured. The Cafe Manager fills it each time a sampling session runs, with a live photo of the station, and the Area Manager reviews it to compare how the launch is landing across outlets. Two items are fatal because they are food safety failures: a missing allergen label and food held out of safe temperature. Every failed item raises a ticket with an owner and a deadline.
Free. No form. The workbook has the same columns as the table below, with the score formula and a fatal-item check in place.
Score = weight of items answered Yes ÷ weight of items not marked N/A, out of 100. Pass mark 90. A failed fatal item caps the score at zero and raises a ticket to the area manager.
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recipe card followed | Is the sample prepared exactly to the new recipe card, with the right ingredients and quantities? | Yes / No / N/A | Optional | 4 | Recipe card at the station, sample matches the card, no substituted ingredients. |
| 2 | Ingredients within date | Are all ingredients used for the samples within their use-by dates and labelled in the kitchen? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 4 | Every ingredient labelled with use-by date, nothing expired or unlabelled in use. |
| 3 | Team briefed | Has the counter team been briefed on the new item, its taste, price and allergens? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Every person at the counter can describe the item, price and allergens in one line. |
| 4 | FSSAI licence displayed | Is the FSSAI licence displayed at the front of house where customers can see it? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 3 | Licence displayed and valid, outlet address matching, visible from the counter. |
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Station hygiene | Is the sampling station at the counter or front of house clean, sanitised and away from the billing area? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 4 | Surface sanitised, no clutter, station away from cash, cards and the bin. |
| 6 | Allergen labelFatal | Is a clear allergen label displayed at the station, listing nuts, dairy, gluten and other allergens in the item? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 5 | Printed label at the station naming every allergen, readable from where customers stand. |
| 7 | Gloves and serving tools | Are samples served with tongs or by gloved hands, never with bare hands? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 4 | Tongs or fresh gloves in use, gloves changed after touching cash or cards. |
| 8 | Portion size | Are sample portions small and consistent, in individual cups or on picks? | Yes / No / N/A | Optional | 2 | Every portion the same size, served in individual cups or picks, no shared plates. |
| 9 | Holding temperatureFatal | Are hot samples held hot and cold samples held cold, within the brand's safe temperature limits? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 5 | Temperature checked with a probe, hot above and cold below the brand limits, logged. |
| 10 | Samples covered | Are waiting samples covered and replaced within the brand's holding time? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Samples under a cover or dome, replaced within holding time, old ones discarded. |
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Allergens mentioned verbally | Does the staff member mention the main allergens before handing a sample to a customer? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Staff name the main allergens before every sample, especially to parents with children. |
| 12 | Customer feedback captured | How many customers gave feedback on the new item during this session? | Number | No | 2 | A count of customers whose feedback was recorded, not the number of samples given. |
| 13 | Feedback summary | What did customers say about taste, price and whether they would order it? | Text | No | 2 | Three or four short lines on taste, price and intent to order, in customers' words. |
| 14 | Station photo | Can you take a live photo of the sampling station during the session? | Photo | Required | 2 | Whole station in frame, allergen label, samples and serving tools visible. |
Loaded into BorentisOps, each required photo is live, GPS and time-stamped, so a photo from yesterday or another store does not pass. Where the brand has a docket or display standard, Drishti scores the photo against it and marks the misses. Every fail raises a ticket with an owner and a deadline, and the area manager sees the store on a heat map before the next visit.
The checklist runs offline and syncs when signal returns, in Hindi, English and Hinglish, and the operations score sits next to the store's selling score from Borentis Floor on one store card. Pricing is per store, so every cafe manager and staff member in the store is on the app.
Because a customer tasting a free sample may not ask what is in it. A child with a nut allergy or an adult with a gluten intolerance can react to a single bite. Without a visible allergen label, the outlet is serving food without the information a customer needs to stay safe, so a fail caps the checklist and raises an immediate ticket.
Keep it light. Staff note the number of customers who gave feedback and a few short lines on taste, price and whether they would order it. The Area Manager reads these across outlets to see how the launch is landing. Avoid collecting names or phone numbers at the sampling station unless the brand has a consented feedback form.
It is written for company-owned outlets, where the brand runs the kitchen and the counter directly. A franchise cafe run to the brand's standard can use the same checklist if the franchise agreement covers new product launches. The food safety items, allergen labels and temperature, should apply everywhere samples are served.
Yes. The Excel download keeps the same columns BorentisOps uses: section, item, question, answer type, photo rule, weight, fatal flag and the note on what good looks like. It imports as a checklist, and a Borentis onboarding person maps the filled-by and reviewed-by roles to your people and assigns it to your stores. Most brands run it once per sampling session and compare feedback across outlets in the first week of a launch.