Rob Geus is a well-known Dutch television personality, presenter, chef, quality inspector and above all hygiene expert. He is praised for his work in the world of food inspection and hygiene. We asked him about the state of hygiene in hotels. "It starts at the bottom. And with logical thinking."
Geus gained fame with his appearances in the television programme "De Smaakpolitie" on SBS6. In this programme, he visited restaurants and other eateries to inspect hygiene and food safety. He checked kitchens, inspected storage areas and pointed out possible food safety violations. As a result, his most famous statement was: "Man, man, man. This does not make me happy!"
Besides "De Smaakpolitie", Rob Geus has participated in several television programmes, including reality shows such as "Expeditie Robinson" and "Sterren Jump Op Zaterdag". Outside his television work, Rob Geus is involved in charity work and charities and is committed to creating awareness about food safety and hygiene in the hospitality industry.
Geus has its own restaurant - De Wensboom - in Barendrecht. Located in the old restaurant of a nursing home, the family restaurant also provides fresh meals for residents of the neighbouring nursing home. At the same time, it is a business that provides a safe working environment for people at a disadvantage on the labour market. As such, it is the first apprenticeship company in the hospitality industry in Barendrecht. Geus also invested in its own cleaning product line with a wide range of affordable and professional cleaning products. This line offers a wide range of affordable cleaning products of professional quality.
So Geus is the person of choice to answer the question about the state of hygiene in Dutch hotels. "I think we are not very bad in the Netherlands," he replies in his recognisably enthusiastic way. "At the same time, there is plenty of room for improvement. Hygiene control in particular falls short as far as I'm concerned. There are far too few inspectors at the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). As a result, many hotels miss the boat. Food safety is still a poor relation in many places."
Geus believes that the responsibility for cleaning and hygiene is spread over too many departments at many hotels. "There is not always sufficient consultation and overview between the various departments, which is why things go wrong. The consumer then bears the brunt of this."
Basically, where Geus says things often go wrong is time pressure. "In many hotels, there is a maximum number of minutes of cleaning per room. In addition, many staff are poorly trained on cleaning. In fact, the cleaners themselves are the least to blame. They really do their best, but they are given too little time and are poorly trained."
According to Geus, the solution is therefore not that complicated. "If you get the structure in a hotel right at the front and train the people properly yourself, instead of outsourcing the cleaning, I am sure things will improve. By outsourcing it and opting for a low price, you take a risk. If the different departments of a hotel consult more often and better about the level of hygiene, things will naturally improve. In fact, in most hotel kitchens, they have their act together just fine. Only when you get one floor up in a hotel do the problems start."
Geus knows that many hotel companies struggle to find suitable staff, but also bounces the ball back. "I am convinced that if you take good care of your staff, they will want to work for you and also stay longer. You do need to incentivise and reward them. That starts with the basics. Good supervision and attention are incredibly important, even for the youngest employees who are just starting out. In any organisation, it starts at the bottom. If you show those employees how important they are to you, it will work its way up."
In his own restaurant, Geus also tackles it that way. "We start every day the same way: by filling in the planning board properly. If that is not done properly, the whole day is ruined. Structure is the most important thing. With the right puppets in the right place and a smile. That starts at the bottom. Because if you forget those then you end up in trouble at the top. That's not higher mathematics, just logical thinking."
Together with manufacturer EETikon, Rob Geus has developed a new line of stickers to code food in kitchens. "The stickers work with colour coding and you can easily write on them. Most importantly, we have developed a sticker that dissolves in water, so no glue residue - and thus bacterial growth - can be left on stainless steel trays and dishes. So when checking, you can show very specifically how long something has been in the fridge, without it being impossible to tell. And at the same time, old stickers do not stick. In other words: two problems solved at once." The stickers can be ordered and, according to De Geus, are no more expensive than other ways of coding.