Bentota Beach Hotel wins 5 crowns at ‘Crown for Food Hygiene’

Wednesday, 18 September 2013 00:18 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In keeping up with one of the pledges of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, ‘I will get it right the first time, every time,’ Bentota Beach Hotel bagged five crowns for food hygiene, the highest standard of food hygiene, at a ceremony held recently. The Chief Guest of the Awards Ceremony was Senior Minister for Food Security M.P. Dayaratne. The event was well attended by the officials of Ministry of Food Security, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Health, SLTDA and CMC. The ‘Crown for Food Hygiene’ scheme was launched by IND-EXPO Certification Ltd., as the implementing partner to encourage the continuous improvement of food hygiene standards in the food handling establishments in Sri Lanka.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) launched this scheme in order to strength international certification capability in Sri Lanka in relation to food safety standards funded by the royal Norwegian Government (NORAD) and also associated with Ceylon National Chamber of Industries and National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) and the Ministry of Industrial Development. The project supported the design of a voluntary food hygiene scheme for the food catering sector named ‘Crowns for Food Hygiene’ with the aim of improving the food and safety standards. The main objective of the ‘Crowns for Food Hygiene’ scheme is to encourage food catering establishments to practice safer food hygiene practices and thereby offer safer food to their patrons. The procedure for awarding crowns for food establishments such as hotels is by the assessment by a team of auditors from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and IND-EXPO Certification Ltd., followed by an expert panel who will determine the number of crowns awarded to the applicant. A maximum of five crowns would be awarded to the establishment which complies with the highest level of food hygiene practices as set in the criteria of the scheme. “It is of paramount importance to us that we keep up to the image of our brand, Cinnamon, and always strive to deliver the best in terms of our product and service offerings. Winning five crowns for food hygiene was a simple example of us standing out as true hospitality trendsetters,” said Sanjeeva Perera, General Manager of Bentota Beach Hotel. Bentota Beach Hotel boasts of winning five crowns and portrays itself as maintaining the highest standards, not only when offering excellent accommodation in a stunning location bordering the river and beach, but also the best quality and hygiene standards in relation to food.