Here you’ll find useful information, news items and articles relating to Food Safety.
When I was a child I used to constantly smell of chlorine!
Bear with me on this one:
This is because I used to train in a swimming squad 6 times a week which included getting up very early in the morning and racking up the miles in my local pool. Please don’t be deceived though, I am no ‘Adam Peaty’ but I could hold my own in a club race and had a shelf full of medals and trophies in my bedroom to prove it.
We are talking about important documents which are usually covered in food and spillages, unfortunately it comes with the territory! It’s always that piece of paper that you desperately need to get you out of a sticky situation that get’s mislaid, usually when the EHO is visiting or when you are following up a complaint.
The majority of people are now working from home, self-isolating or practicing social distancing to keep themselves safe from catching coronavirus and to protect the NHS. This coupled with the new Coronavirus Legislation resulting in the closure of restaurants, coffee shops, bars and social venues with only limited takeaway or delivery options available, has resulted in a huge increase in eating at home.
I am frequently coming across food businesses who have inadequate or incorrect allergen information which can cause serious problems in terms of not keeping customers safe, poor FHRS ratings, fines and worse.
The most common reason food business owners give for not sorting out their allergen controls is that they haven’t got enough time to do it and this is the most worrying part.
Here’s why:
Why do you need to train your staff?
Everyone who sells or serves food must make sure by law that it is safe to eat, and employers must make sure their staff are suitably trained or supervised. The majority of food business access training courses for their staff, provided in house or by an external training provider, and use the certificates to demonstrate what training their staff have done.
As well as the compliance side of things training can have many positive benefits including happier, more efficient and more productive workers, but what type of training is best?
What is a Food Safety Audit
Food safety audits/checks can help reduce risk and improve staff behaviours by collecting information on how a business is handling, storing, preparing, cooking and serving food and give advice and recommendations on how to improve. For example date labelling issues could result in the storage of out of date food and preparing food which is not safe and could make customers ill and result in enforcement action being taken. Corrective action and recommendations for improvement could be to put in place opening and closing checks and re training staff on the company food labelling procedure.
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Food Safety is a constantly changing beast influenced and driven by new technologies, consumer awareness and trends, the media, emerging food safety risks and legislation.
I have put together my list of 12 food safety trends to watch out for in this coming year which could affect your food business:
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Introduction
I attended a ‘kitchen conversation’ at the Royal Society of Public Health head office in London recently with Sterling Crew (Head of Technical at Kolak Snack Foods) and Dr. Lisa Ackerley (The Hygiene Doctor). One of the conversations we had was around food safety culture and how important it is for food businesses in helping to provide safe food for customers.
It seems that ‘Food safety Culture’ is the new buzz phrase being thrown around in the food industry but what does it actually mean to a food business?
Times are changing in the food industry. It can sometimes be difficult to keep up to date with new food safety legislation, guidance and developments especially with the EU Exit thrown into the mix. If you just want the answer to a question or food safety problem you might now always know who to ask or where to find the information.
Last summer I spent a few days doing food safety audits at various festivals around the country and many of the mobile traders were offering vegan food from Chinese dumplings, smoothies and vegan juices to vegan noodles and salads.
Food Safety Checks
These were generally the same regardless of the food being produced paying particular attention to hand washing facilities, temperature control, staff cleanliness, use of sanitiser etc but there seemed to be a general feeling that I got from the traders and organisers whilst doing the food safety checks, that vegan food was safer to eat as there was no risk of food poisoning from animal products including meat, fish etc which are commonly linked to salmonella, campylobacter and other food poisoning bacteria.
“I mean how risky can it be eating vegan phad thai?”
