Food Hygiene Training South West

17/08/2021

Alongside my Food Safety training and consultancy business I also offer First Aid Training at all levels as well as Licensing Training for those who sell alcohol and require a Personal Licence to allow them to sell or authorise the sale.

www.firstaidtrainjng-southwest.co.uk
www.ncplhlicensing-southwest.co.uk
www.foodhygienetraining-southwest.co.uk

With my first aid..I trained a lovely group of people near Redruth recently and just a couple of days after the training received the email below from Edward who attended.
It reconfirms the need to have some first aid knowledge as you never know when you might have to deal with a potentially serious situation and good training gives you that confidence to do the right thing.
If you are in need of training then please contact Derek Robinson at First Aid Training SW
www.firstaidtraining-southwest.co.uk

Hi Derek

Just a quick email to say thank you for the training. I had to deal with someone who had collapsed and was unresponsive, fortunately breathing, on Saturday. The ambulance took 45 minutes to arrive so it was a comfort that thanks to the training I felt confident that had his condition deteriorate I would know what to do.

Once again thank you for the training.

Edward

19/03/2020

If like me you are probably totally upset by all the news about CV and hearing that so many people have sadly died......We have also had many emails from companies telling us how they are upping their game with cleaning around their particular businesses, perhaps some should have had been doing this anyway!!

My field is Food Safety ( www.foodhygienetraining-southwest.co.uk ) and also First Aid ( www.firstaidtraining-southwest.co.uk ) which I also instruct, and I thought I would share the article which was in the Daily Mail yesterday regarding food poisoning which shows a dramatic rise in cases with around half of these cases being attributed to eating out in restaurants and also take-aways, so it will be interesting to see if there is a decline in numbers now we are in a lockdown and advised not to socialise in pubs, clubs, restaurants, cinemas, bars.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8025781/Britains-love-takeaways-fuels-rise-food-poisoning-2-4m-cases-year.html
It only goes to highlight that all the good hygiene measures which are now taking place (and should have been anyway) following government advice must also be taken in our kitchens to avoid food contamination and cross contamination and therefore food poisoning.
Remember you can check the rating of any food establishment in the UK by visiting the food ratings website...... https://ratings.food.gov.uk Enter the name of your favourite restaurant or take away and it will show the most recent rating from your local Environmental Health Officers visit or just enter the town where you live and it will give every food establishment in the area, you might just be surprised at some of the ratings, ratings of 4 or 5 or good but you have to make take the decision whether you wish to eat food where the business has a much lower rating and I personally would not wish to eat anything from. zero / 1 / 2 rated venue.
Stay safe and yes wash those hands....

Stomach illnesses caused by food contaminated with the so-called 'winter vomiting bug' are far higher in the UK than previously believed.

05/12/2019

Wood and wooden equipment in commercial kitchens is not normally used as it cannot be cleaned and disinfected as effectively as some of the more modern materials.
Wood is also susceptible to splitting which allows food debris and in particular blood (therefore bacteria) if preparing raw meat, this will gather and hold in the cracks and rapid bacteria growth will occur.
Splinters of wood can also enter food if the chopping board is starting to degrade through over use.
It should be noted one Grill & Steakhouse was fined £50k in 2018 for repeatedly serving steaks on unhygienic boards, the servings boards were split, dirty and badly stained.

02/07/2019

“Natasha’s Law”
It has been confirmed that laws will be introduced to make it mandatory to label ALL pre-packed food products to show all of the ingredients and in particular if any of the 14 listed allergens are used in the product.
It will apply to England, Wales and Northern Ireland
This follows the sad death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died on an aircraft flying to Nice in France after eating a baguette purchased from Pret A Manger which contained sesame seed which she had a severe allergy to.
The Law will be in place by summer 2021, this may seem a long way away but it is to give businesses time to take appropriate measures to get the labelling correct. It will effect ALL businesses however small supplying pre-packaged foods I.e. sandwiches, baguettes, salads, snack foods, cakes, pastries etc.
As a reminder the current “legal” list of allergens is:
Gluten, Milk, Eggs, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Peanut, Tree Nuts, Sesame, Lupin, Sulphur Dioxide, Fish, Celery, Mustard, Soya.
Suppliers will need to find a suitable label and applicator gun which will print all of the required information, they will need to interrogate every single recipe and menu item to check the ingredients.
Smaller businesses may find this a daunting process and they will need to give it their urgent attention to ensure everything is in place ready for the law change.
Attention will also have to be considered for the making of the products to eliminate any risk of cross contamination between foods with allergens and those without.
Food Hygiene Training SW can give advice and training on allergens.

25/04/2019

For all the businesses that have Ice Machines you really should empty them at least every 2 weeks to thoroughly clean it.
Research has shown there can be a significant amount of bacteria both in the machine due to mould growth and also the scoop used for taking the ice out.
Mould growth will occur due to the damp atmosphere, however there is another problem with staff using the dirty hands to handle the ice and also dirty hands touching the scoop.
So in summary empty the machine, clean and sanitise it regularly also clean and sanitise the scoop.

15/07/2018

Remember in the UK it is a legal requirement to have a Food Safety Management system based on the principles of HACCP
H = Hazard
A = Analysis
C = Critical
C = Control
P = Points

The principals were first adopted in 1995 but it became law in 2006.

There are 7 listed principals

The system basically identifies a Hazard (these can be Microbiological / Chemical / Physical / Allergen
You then have to consider which if any of the hazards could be critical to food safety I.e. Critical Control Point
Monitoring i.e. checking must be carried out at all of the identified CCPs
You have to understand the Critical Limit which will often be temperature but could be other aspects such as weight or acid level or water content.
Corrective Action must be described these should bring a CCP back under control
Verification/ Validation is carried out periodically to ensure the system is still valid and workable for the product or process
Documentation must be in place to record all activities carried out, i.e. cooking temperatures / cleaning / storage temperatures..... the documentation would support a claim of Due Diligence should a matter end up in court.

The FSA - Food Standard Agency have produced a folder SFBB Safer Food Better Business which is aimed at the smaller food business such as cafe’s, pubs etc.
There are different versions available which can be downloaded from the FSA website.
Attending a Food Hygiene Training SW training course will give you all the knowledge required to operate a system based on the HACCP principals.

20/05/2018

Please remember if you are in a business which makes and sells food, money (both paper money and coins)is one of the worst carriers of food poisoning bacteria.
Because of this risk you should ensure hands are washed as often as possible, in particular before handling any high risk ready to eat foods

Derek Robinson is a First Aid instructor - www.firstaidtraining-southwest.co.uk

In addition he also instructs on Alcohol Licensing
www.ncplhlicensing-southwest.co.uk

First Aid Training – South West is operated by Derek Robinson who has considerable training experience offering courses in Food Safety, APLH Licensing as well as First Aid. Emergency First Aid at Work and First Aid at Work are the most popular courses, but Paediatric First Aid, Emergency Response ...

24/03/2018

Raw Chicken continues to be a major cause of food poisoning and is often linked to Campylobacter bacteria, some figures suggest it is accounting for upwards of 70% of food poisoning cases. Much much more than the better known Salmonella.
The bacteria is killed by cooking to a temperature above 75c so we must ensure that temperature is reached without fail.
There is also a major risk of Cross Contamination so everything that the raw chicken comes into contact with must be washed and disinfected, this would include chopping boards, cloths, forks, knives etc. hands must be washed thoroughly before touching any other food.

10/02/2018

WASH YOUR HANDS!!
USE CLEAN CLOTHS!!
Recent studies have shown that hands and cloths are among the major causes of Cross Contamination due to touching raw foods particularly meat and chicken and then touching ready to eat foods where there is no further processing or cooking.
So whilst is sounds very obvious please ensure you wash your hands as often as needed during food preparation and also make sure your cloths or tea towels are always clean otherwise you are just spreading bacteria.

22/10/2017

A local Environmental Health Officer recently visited one of my clients and carried out some random surface swab testing, whilst my client was deemed to be excellent the EHO commented that the worst areas for high bacterial counts were refrigerator door handles and taps.
This should be a reminder to ensure that all surfaces and in particular handles, k***s, taps and switches should be cleaned correctly using a suitable sanitiser or disinfectant.

18/07/2017

ALLERGENS....There has sadly been deaths caused by a severe allergic reaction, foods have included dairy, peanuts and shellfish.
Can I remind all businesses that they must have information available if a customer asks if a particular allergen is in the food they are about to purchase or eat...The regulations list 14 allergens which you must have information on, these are Gluten, Fish, Crustacean, Molluscs, Lupin, Celery, Mustard, Soya, Egg, Peanuts, Tree nuts, Milk,Sesame, Sulphur Dioxide
Many common and everyday foods often have allergens which you would not expect for example,
HP Brown Sauce has barley & rye (gluten) Worcester Sauce has fish, many wines contain sulphites so please check all your recipes and list all allergens in a folder.

27/06/2017

Businesses should make sure they are recording all activities in particular cooking and storage temperatures...More and more catering outlets are getting their food rating reduced simply because they do not have the necessary paperwork in place.
Saying you do something is not good enough, you must be able to prove it on paper..