ABOUT US
ABOUT US
CaterPilots is an independent airline catering food safety company, founded in 2016 by Elisa Butler. It helps airlines protect passengers and their brand through independent supplier audits, foreign object and foodborne illness investigations, special meal (SPML) and allergen management, inflight meal heating verification, cabin crew food safety training, and incident response.
CaterPilots has no ties to caterers or catering groups, so its findings serve the airline. It works with airlines worldwide, with offices across six continents. The people have worked inside airline catering operations and food compliance, so the work is practical and based on evidence.
THE FOUNDER
Elisa Butler is the founder of CaterPilots, an independent airline catering food safety company established in 2016. Before founding it, she spent fourteen years in airline catering as a food safety auditor for airlines and as a general manager of inflight catering operations in Germany, USA and Australia.
Working on both sides of the industry gave Elisa a clear view of how food safety fails. She has audited caterers on behalf of airlines, and she has run the kitchens being audited.
During one routine audit, an experienced auditor found six expired items hidden behind fresh stock on a bottom shelf. The facility failed. The general manager apologised, promised it would not happen again, and put a corrective action plan in place. A week later, Elisa returned for an informal check and went straight to the same shelf. She found twenty expired products, spread across several shelves and production lines. The problem had not been fixed. It had moved.
The expired food was not the real failure. The real failure was a system built to look compliant during an audit and relax once the auditor left. Elisa also saw how caterers respond when something goes wrong. In her experience, accepting responsibility is the exception. Apologies are offered, but the cause is rarely admitted, and the airline is left to carry the risk to its passengers and its reputation.
About eighteen months later, Elisa left her role to start CaterPilots. Her principle was simple. Food safety should be a continuous internal discipline, not a periodic event, and when an incident happens, the investigation should be thorough enough that the cause can’t be argued away.
CaterPilots works for airlines and answers to no caterer. It audits beyond regulatory compliance, investigates incidents with documented evidence and chain of custody, and gives airlines the facts they need to hold suppliers accountable.
