World Food Safety Day 2026: turning challenges into action

On June 7th, Newrest teams around the world came together to celebrate World Food Safety Day 2026, embracing this year’s theme: “From Burden to Solutions – Safe Food Everywhere.” The event once again demonstrated the strength of our food safety culture and our teams’ commitment to delivering practical solutions.

Across our countries and operations, teams showed remarkable engagement, creativity, and ownership.

From awareness campaigns and training sessions to interactive games, operational simulations, and best-practice sharing, teams developed initiatives tailored to their local realities while remaining fully aligned with Newrest’s commitment to safe food everywhere.

Thousands of employees were engaged through activities designed to reinforce knowledge, challenge habits, encourage teamwork, and strengthen food safety behaviors in daily operations.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s campaign.

Your dedication shows that food safety is more than a requirement, it is a shared responsibility and a core value at Newrest.

Recognizing the 2026 winners

To ensure a fair and objective evaluation process, all submissions were assessed against four key criteria:

Alignment with the 2026 WFSD theme: “From Burden to Solutions”;
Number of employees involved and impacted;
Level of innovation compared to previous editions;
Potential for replication across other Newrest operations.

After careful review and voting, we are pleased to announce the winners of the WFSD 2026 Challenge:

🥇 QATAR

🥈 BOLIVIA & GERMANY (Ex-Aequo)

🥉 ANGOLA

Qatar: bringing “From Burden to Solutions” to life

Qatar earned first place through the creation of Captain SAFE, an innovative and highly engaging concept built directly around this year’s theme. Employees first identified food safety risks (“Red Mode”) before implementing corrective actions (“Green Mode”), directly linking risk identification to practical solutions.

The program combined gamification, operational learning, leadership involvement, and employee engagement across multiple sites. Through checkpoints focused on receiving controls, temperature management, allergen control, and service culture, teams were encouraged to actively solve food safety challenges rather than simply discuss them.

The campaign mobilized more than 450 employees across 10 active sites, supported by a structured passport system, interactive challenges, and strong internal and external communication. The concept stood out for its creativity, its strong alignment with the WFSD theme, and its potential to be easily replicated across other Newrest operations worldwide.

Germany & Bolivia: two different approaches, one common objective

Germany impressed the jury with its interactive “Be the auditor” challenge, designed around the launch of a new premium airline. Participants were tasked with identifying hidden non-conformities, assessing associated risks, and ensuring that only safe and compliant meals would be served. The initiative encouraged operational ownership and critical thinking while successfully engaging a multicultural workforce through communication in multiple languages.

Bolivia developed a comprehensive food safety journey around practical activities covering hand hygiene, cross-contamination prevention, cleaning and disinfection, traceability, temperature control, and cold chain management. Particularly appreciated were the “Wrong route” challenge and the “Tree of solutions” activity, which encouraged employees to identify weaknesses and propose improvement ideas themselves.

Both countries demonstrated excellent innovation, strong employee participation, and practical initiatives with clear replication potential across the Group.

Angola: consistency through creativity

For the second consecutive year, Angola reached the podium, demonstrating its continued commitment to food safety culture and employee engagement. The team adopted a creative “breaking news” approach to communicate its campaign, combining escape games, risk-control challenges linked to the non-negotiables, site recognition activities, client interactions, and outreach initiatives involving schools and local communities.

This combination of creativity, visibility, and sustained commitment once again distinguished Angola among the strongest submissions of the year.

A victory beyond the podium

While the challenge celebrated a podium, the true success lies in the collective mobilization demonstrated across Newrest. Every participating country helped strengthen our food safety culture by sharing best practices and reinforcing safe behaviors across our operations.

Let us continue to learn from one another, share innovative ideas, and transform food safety challenges into practical and sustainable solutions.

Because I CARE, YOU CARE, WE ALL CARE.