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Reflections from the Latin America Food Safety Summit 2026 in Jalisco, Mexico, a blog written by DR. Mark Flanagan.
Food safety in hospitality is no longer just a technical matter for inspectors, auditors or safety teams. It has become a strategic issue for operators, regulators, hospitality brands, tourism destinations and public trust. That was the central message I shared at the Latin America Food Safety Summit 2026 in Jalisco, Mexico – and it is one that every hospitality professional should take seriously.
Across the world, foodborne disease continues to place a huge burden on consumers, businesses and economies. The latest figures referenced in the presentation estimate 866 million cases of foodborne disease globally each year, resulting in 1.52 million deaths. In the UK alone, 2.4 million cases are estimated to cost the economy £9.1 billion annually. At the same time, 1 in 7 guests has an adverse reaction to eating food.
For hospitality businesses, those statistics are more than numbers. They represent guests, families, reputations, claims, complaints, lost confidence and commercial risk. In a sector built on trust, experience and repeat custom, the question is simple: how can operators demonstrate that they are managing food safety consistently, credibly and transparently?
For many years, hospitality businesses have relied heavily on regulatory inspection as the primary visible marker of food safety assurance. But that model is under increasing strain.
In the presentation, I explained that regulatory resources in the UK have been reducing since 2010, with local authorities facing significant funding pressures and many Environmental Health teams under severe strain. The script also highlights that 45% of food standards posts have been lost and not replaced since 2010.
This challenge is not only about funding. There is also a workforce issue. Using Scotland as an example, the presentation notes that there is no undergraduate degree course to qualify as an Environmental Health Officer and that the average age of the inspector workforce is over 50. This creates a real risk that, as experienced regulators retire, fewer qualified professionals will be available to carry out official controls.
The consequence is clear: fewer inspections, growing backlogs and longer periods between regulatory visits. During the COVID-19 period, inspections stopped, which increased the backlog further. The recovery programme then focused on new and higher-risk businesses, leaving many operators uninspected for extended periods.
For responsible hospitality businesses, this creates a problem. If your business is doing the right things every day, but the official inspection model cannot provide timely reassurance, how do you make your standards visible to customers, regulators and stakeholders?
The hospitality and catering sector is also evolving rapidly. Operators no longer need traditional bricks-and-mortar premises on the high street to sell food. Food can now be sold online, from shared kitchens, industrial estates and via digital aggregators such as Uber Eats, Didi Food and Rappi.
This diversification creates new opportunities for hospitality entrepreneurs – but it also increases the complexity of food safety oversight. Regulators must identify, understand and inspect a wider variety of business models, many of which operate in ways that traditional inspection systems were not originally designed to manage.
At the same time, good operators are already generating significant amounts of food safety data: audits, monitoring records, training records, allegations, corrective actions and due diligence evidence. The challenge is not simply whether data exists. The challenge is whether that data can be structured, trusted and used to create meaningful assurance.
Today’s consumers are more demanding about safety, allergens and transparency than they were even a few years ago. They expect not only safe food, but visible confidence in how safety is managed. The presentation frames this through a very direct question from the diner: “Can you tell me what is in this food, how it was handled, and whether I can trust your answer?”
Consumer confidence is influenced by visible cues. People look at cleanliness, personal hygiene, toilets, whether they can see into the kitchen and whether the business displays credible food safety information. Safe to Trade is positioned in the presentation as one of those food information programmes that can help provide visible reassurance.
This matters because consumer expectations and regulatory reality are increasingly misaligned. The presentation notes that published research indicates consumers expect regular state inspections, with expected frequency ranging from once a month to once a year. Yet the gap between that expectation and the reality of inspection frequency is widening. For hospitality businesses, this gap creates both risk and opportunity. The risk is that consumers may assume regular inspection is happening when it is not. The opportunity is that credible, independent assurance can help responsible businesses stand out.
Voluntary third-party assurance programmes, or vTPA programmes, are independent certification systems where a food business chooses to be assessed against a standard by an accredited third party. In the food supply chain, examples referenced in the presentation include Red Tractor, BRCGS, SQF, FSSC 2200 and Lion Eggs. These programmes provide credible evidence of control and help reduce risk. The presentation used Fairtrade as an analogy: a globally recognised consumer-facing assurance programme that converts complex systems into a simple trust signal. In the same way, Safe to Trade is described as a trusted consumer certification programme for hospitality. That is the key point. Good assurance does not simply create paperwork. It translates standards, audits and data into confidence — for operators, consumers and regulators.
Safe to Trade was developed to respond to exactly these pressures. Its purpose is to make the world a safer place to eat, with the consumer at the heart of the programme. The Safe to Trade model brings together a number of important components. Audits are conducted by competent auditors working for a certification body. Audits are carried out against the Safe to Trade standard and in accordance with the Safe to Trade protocol. Certification bodies must manage and conduct audits in line with that protocol and issue certification to food businesses that meet the requirements.
Once a business meets the standard, it receives certification and is added to the Safe to Trade public directory. The directory enables consumers to search for approved operators, while businesses can use the directory and marketing materials to promote their approved status to customers. For hospitality operators, this creates a practical way to demonstrate that food safety is being managed proactively — not just when an inspector visits, but as part of an ongoing assurance system.
Hospitality businesses are under constant pressure: staffing, costs, customer expectations, allergens, delivery platforms, brand reputation and regulatory compliance. Food safety can sometimes feel like a defensive activity – something done to avoid problems. Safe to Trade reframes that conversation. Instead of food safety being hidden in files, forms and back-office systems, certification can help make your commitment visible. It gives operators a way to show customers that they take safety seriously. It gives teams a clear standard to work towards. It provides structured assurance that can support regulators, consumers and the business itself.
The presentation also explains that Safe to Trade collects data from certification bodies and provides anonymised insights that can be used by food business operators, consumer groups and regulators. The data is described as high-quality structured data that can help drive improvement. That is where modern assurance becomes powerful. It is not simply about passing an audit. It is about using structured insight to improve standards, reduce risk and build confidence over time.
International guidance increasingly recognises the role that reliable voluntary third-party assurance programmes can play within modern food control systems. The presentation references Codex Alimentarius guidance, which encourages competent authorities to take account of quality assurance systems used by food business operators where those systems relate to protecting consumer health and ensuring fair practices in the food trade. It also notes that Codex guidance allows reliable programme data to support smarter, data-driven prioritisation of official resources, while regulators retain responsibility for oversight.
This distinction is important. These programmes do not replace regulation. They do not remove the responsibility of food businesses. They are complementary tools within a broader system. The presentation also references UNIDO, which states that the benefits of vTPA programmes can include improvements in food hygiene and safety, more efficient allocation of time during inspections, reduced duplication of controls and better risk profiling of food businesses or sectors.
For hospitality professionals, this points towards the future: a model where strong operators can evidence control, consumers can make informed choices and regulators can focus resources more intelligently.
The forces reshaping food safety are not slowing down. Regulatory capacity remains under pressure. Hospitality business models continue to diversify. Consumers expect greater transparency. Allergens, vulnerable consumers, online food sales and reputational risk are all increasing the need for visible, credible assurance. Doing more of the same is no longer enough. Hospitality businesses need a smarter model – one that combines standards, competent auditing, credible certification, meaningful data and consumer-facing trust.
If you operate in hospitality, catering, food service, hotels, restaurants, cafés, delivery kitchens or leisure catering, Safe to Trade can help you demonstrate your commitment to safer food and stronger standards. It can help you move from simply holding records to showing visible assurance. It can help you give customers greater confidence in where they eat. Most importantly, it can help you show that food safety is not just something you say you take seriously – it is something you can evidence.
If your business wants to strengthen food safety confidence, improve visibility with customers and align with a modern approach to hospitality assurance, now is the time to find out more about Safe to Trade. Safe to Trade is designed for the changing world of hospitality: a world where consumers want trust, regulators need smarter assurance and responsible operators deserve to stand out.
