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elevating allergen awareness with Benugo, Searcy’s and Notes Coffee.

Benugo, Searcys and Notes Coffee elevate their learning with innovative allergen awareness training

Benugo, Searcys and Notes Coffee, all part of leading hospitality group WSH, each deliver exceptional food and drink experiences across cafes, restaurants and event spaces. With such a diverse and dynamic workforce, allergen awareness is a vital part of ensuring safety and quality. It’s crucial that every team member understands the importance of allergen safety and feels confident in applying best practices – not only to meet audit standards, but to protect both guests and colleagues.

the challenge

Like many in the sector, Benugo, Searcys and Notes Coffee moved their allergen training from in-person to digital during the pandemic. A few years on, they partnered with Mindboost to evolve this digital learning, aiming to better reflect the needs of their teams and respond to findings from a recent audit.

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performance consultancy
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content creation

the solution

Mindboost worked with the brands to create two digital learning modules. The first is tailored to food handlers, supporting them to carry out the correct allergen procedures confidently. The second module is aimed at ‘Allergy Champions’ – individuals who act as go-to experts on allergens at each site. Both modules are built with modern, scrolling pages, interactive video, and work seamlessly across devices to support learning on the go.

Outstanding by design
Inspiring Positivity

It was important that team members didn’t approach food safety with fear or confusion. Instead, Benugo, Searcys and Notes Coffee wanted their people to feel confident, empowered and proud of doing things the right way. To achieve this, Mindboost used positive messaging, an encouraging tone of voice and real-world stories that inspired learners to take ownership of allergen safety.

This positive tone is reinforced through video content woven throughout the learning. One ‘split screen’ style video shows how allergen awareness can make a birthday dinner with friends safe and enjoyable for a guest with an allergy. In another, we hear from customers about the reassurance they feel from Allergy Champions, and in another, the champions themselves share why the role matters to them.

Making it personal

Mindboost’s approach goes beyond generic training. By making the experience personal to the learners, it resonates more deeply. During the design process, a key focus was making the content relevant to real people and their real lives. Learners were encouraged to reflect on their own experiences of allergies – whether personal or from friends and family – as well as how confident they felt handling allergen-related tasks.

Practice makes perfect

Understanding the importance of allergen safety is one thing – knowing what to do in real situations is another. These two modules make clear what actions are expected of both food handlers and Allergy Champions, whether that’s checking ingredients, managing labels, storing food safely or dealing with an allergy emergency.

To help learners feel prepared, the modules provide a safe space to practise. Mindboost created realistic scenario-based questions so learners could test their knowledge before facing real-life situations. Interactive video scenes allowed them to make decisions in customer conversations and watch the outcomes unfold – an immersive way to build confidence.

the impact

Moving away from face-to-face training gave the teams at Benugo, Searcys and Notes Coffee the opportunity to reach more people, more quickly, and improve consistency across locations. The new digital learning experience boosts both competence and confidence in allergen safety.

And the result? All three brands achieved official accreditation for their two new modules, Allergen Awareness and Allergy Champions.

Get in touch to see how we can simplify, create and inspire an adaptable bespoke digital learning within your business.

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