This week the Food Standards Agency (FSA) launched their national food hygiene rating scheme nationwide.  Finally, there’s no need to be concerned about the standard of food from that dodgy burger van in town, your local Chinese takeaway or that grotty-looking greasy cafe in your village!   Instead, you’ll be able to see the ‘scores on the doors’ for all food establishments, from shopping centers to high street pubs and restaurants.

The FSA, in partnership with local authorities, will assign stickers to restaurants, takeaways, cafes and supermarket for display on their shop front.  The stickers are bright green and black, and show a rating of 0 – 5 in the new national food hygiene rating scheme.

Early adopters of the food hygiene rating scheme published their ratings on line at food.gov.uk/ratings earlier this year.   The outstanding authorities are expected to join and post their scores over the coming months.

How it works:

After an inspection by the local council’s food safety officers, food establishments will receive their stickers for display, which will tell visiting consumers if the inspection found that ‘urgent improvement’ is necessary or if standards are ‘very good’.

The stickers feature five circled numbers, with that particular establishment’s rating clearly highlighted (see picture: right).

Food safety officers will check how hygienically food is handled, how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored. They’ll also look at the condition of the building, its facilities and how it manages food safety (for example, fridge temperatures and staff training).

The aim of this exercise, according to the FSA, is to cut reported one million food poisoning cases, which are reported every year.

The food hygiene rating system will help to reduce food poisoning cases by letting potential customers view establishments’ rating.  This should encourage owners to be more vigilant with their food hygiene practices and allow people the opportunity to reward highly rated establishments with their custom.

The roll out of this scheme replaces the many ‘local’ schemes many authorities operated across the UK, as many of the grading schemes were inconsistent (different methods and symbols).  The new scheme will help to avoid confusion and provide clarity and consistency for customers.

A high proportion of surveyed members of the public  (86%) believe that food hygiene standards are very important when they’re eating out.

In addition, 23% of people indicated that they’ve sent back undercooked poultry when eating out.

Dead cockroaches, mouse droppings and filthy kitchen equipment lead to a failed inspection for T.G.I Friday’s flagship branch in Covent Garden.

The Covent Garden branch was closed down for six days last year, and in August the branch was ordered to pay a £30,000 fine after Environmental Health Officers found mouse droppings in a bag of sugar, declared the bar area unhygienic and found that that the restaurant wasn’t providing hot water for customers in hand basins.

Mouse infestation:

The council sent Environmental Health Officers to the Covent Garden branch of T.G.I Friday’s after receiving six separate complaints from the restaurant’s customers, after they’d spotted mice outside the establishment.  When the case was taken to court, it emerged that staff had known about the mouse infestation for over one year before the Environmental Health Officers visited.

The prosecutor, Felicia Davy said:

“The floors and the kitchen were filthy and a pile of cockroaches was found in a drawer.  It was clearly a breeding ground for rodents.”

The company admitted to six charges of breaching food hygiene laws.

Councillor Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for Community Safety, said:

“These were appalling hygiene breaches, particularly for such a renowned restaurant chain which frankly, should have known better. We hope this serves as a lesson to all food businesses that such poor standards are not acceptable and that we will always push for the strongest possible punishment against offenders.

“The restaurant industry is a vital part of our economy, and we will not tolerate any behaviour which could jeopardise it or the safety of our millions of visitors.”

Clean up:

The restaurant was allowed to reopen after the six-day closure period, only after spending £66,000 on a clean up of the kitchens.  It’s been reported that inspectors caught 65 mice from the American-themed restaurant last July during the clean up.

The Covent Garden restaurant seems to have got its reputation back on track, as last week the branch held the ‘ T.G.I Friday’s UK Bartender Championship’, which saw Manchester local Adam Friend win the final.  He’ll now go on to take part in the European Championships, representing the UK.

Don’t risk having to pay £96,000!

£66,000 for the clean up + £30,000 fine = a very expensive mistake.  Ensure your staff are properly trained in food hygiene, train them online and receive a certificate the next working day!  Click here to learn more about our food hygiene certificates.

Unsafe levels of harmful bacteria were found in over half the clothes tested in a recent study by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Dirty dishcloths can lead to severe cases of food poisoning if they’re not regularly changed or disinfected. High levels of bacteria on dishcloths can indicate poor food hygiene practices.

The HPA tested 133 cloths from 120 fast-food kitchens and restaurants in the North East of England and found that a staggering 56% of cloths contained unacceptable levels of bacteria, including Enterobacteriaceae, E. colo, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria.

Listeria, in particular, is dangerous as even low levels can cause serious illnesses to vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, the elderly and those with an impaired immune system.

Recommended advice

It’s recommended that restaurants should use disposable cloths and change them regularly, though the study found that only a third of restaurants and take-away kitchens were adhering to this advice.  The remaining 60% of establishments used re-usable dishcloths, with 15% unsure as to how often these cloths should be replaced.

Cross-contamination

Almost a quarter of cloths sampled had been used in both ready-to-eat and raw food preparation areas, leading to cross-contamination and the spread of harmful bacteria.

Disinfection of cloths

A high amount of establishments only disinfected their clothes every 10-24 hours and a number of participants admitted to leaving it longer than 24 hours.

Anything that comes into contact with dirty dishcloths will serve as a breeding ground for bacteria.  This could include employee’s hands, work surfaces and any equipment wiped by the cloths.

Dr John Piggott, the lead author from the HPA’s Food, Water and Environmental Microbiology laboratory in Leeds said:

“Although many [restaurants and takeaway kitchens] disinfected their cloths using bleach or other disinfectants, soaking does not remove the food on which the bacteria grow.  The disinfectant qualities of bleach do wear off after a period of time so soaking large amounts of cloths together can result in bacteria contaminating more cloths and creating more potential problems.”

“All of the premises in our study were given advice on how to practice better hygiene and they will be revisited to make sure that procedures have improved.”

This week Starbucks has revealed plans to offer a range of NVQs to baristas working in their outlets in the UK.  The training scheme, which will cost the company several million pounds, will improve customer experience, boost morale and help ease high levels of staff turn over, plus give staff a range of transferable skills to use in the future.

Staff will be able to earn NVQ qualifications in areas related to their roles, such as food hygiene or they can apply for funding from the ‘Starbucks pot’ to gain new skills in different areas, such as learning a language.

The NVQ in food hygiene training scheme will begin next summer, but will only be open to supervisors for the first two years.  Then the scheme will open up to junior staff too.

Following in the footsteps of companies like McDonalds, Starbucks hopes to do the training in house and award it’s own nationally recognised NVQ qualifications.

There will also be a course for senior managers at the Ashridge Business School, which will be an MBA-style course.

‘Best Barista’

In addition to the NVQ in food hygiene programme and the MBA-style qualification for managers, Starbucks is also introducing the ‘Best Barista’ recruitment-training scheme.  This will teach store managers how to spot potential employees that share the Starbucks set of ‘values’.  They want to recruit staff that are committed to community work, volunteering and of course, have a real passion for coffee.

Talking about the new schemes, Darcy Wilson-Rymer, Managing Director for the UK and Ireland Starbucks coffee shops says:  “When we were devising our new strategy, we asked our partners what mattered to them and they told us loud and clear that they wanted the opportunity to build a career at Starbucks and gain transferable skills.  It’s good news for our customers who want to see familiar faces, but it’s also the right thing to do at a time when coffee shops are providing so many jobs.”

Starbucks employs over 9,000 members of staff in the UK but had to cut roughly 150 roles in Britain during the recession.

Don’t work for Starbucks but want a food hygiene qualification?  You can get a food hygiene certificate in as little as two hours by visiting our website: click here.

Food production giants, Premier Foods have been fined nearly 17,000 after a mouse was found baked into a loaf of its Hovis ‘Best of Both’ bread.

Stephen Forse, a father of three young children, found the mouse crushed into the loaf while buttering bread to make sandwiches for his children.  The animal’s tail was missing, raising fears that it may have already been eaten.

Mr Forse thought, initially, that the dark colour he spotted on the crust was just some dough that hadn’t mixed properly, but on closer inspection he noticed the mouse’s fur.  Quietly, he put the loaf to one side and made his children a new sandwich from a different loaf of bread, this time cautiously checking each slice thoroughly before using it.

Not hungry

Mr Forse said that he was ‘quite shaken’ from the incident.  Understandably, Forse couldn’t eat after spotting the mouse and told his daughter he ‘wasn’t feeling hungry’ as they sat around the table to eat lunch.

Mr Forse then gave the contaminated loaf to environmental heath officers who took it away for forensic analysis.  Later, Premier Foods pleaded guilty to failing to ensure all stages of food production were protected against contamination and for failing to maintain a robust pest management system at its bakery in London.

99% of British households buy Premier Foods

This news has come as a shock to many people, as it’s estimated that 99% of British households buy products produced by Premier Foods.  Though we can take comfort in the fact that Premier Foods maintain that there was no evidence of mice within the bakery and there isn’t a history of similar issues.  Production ceased on the line until a thorough investigation was conducted.  Premier Foods maintain this was an ‘isolated incident.’

Vermin

Mice are vermin, which carry diseases including salmonella.  If contracted, salmonella can lead to severe diarrhoea, sickness and fever.  This can be fatal to children, the elderly and those with a compromised immune system.

Thankfully, neither Mr Forse nor his family suffered ill health from eating contaminated bread from the loaf.

Mouse’s tail

It’s still not known what happened to the mouse’s tail, Mr Forse commented:

”Had it fallen off prior to the bread being wrapped or had any of my family eaten it with another slice of bread on a previous day?”

You can read the original story here, at the Small World News Service and see a photograph of the mouse-contaminated loaf.

They can get certified online.  It’s a legitimate certificate AND it’ll be posted the next day! Find out more: click here.

If you’re just starting out, the idea of ‘food hygiene’ can be a little daunting, perhaps even off-putting! There’s a shed load of laws, rules and regulations that you (and your staff) need to know.

Get things right, and your business could be very successful – but get it wrong and you could face legal implications such as fines and imprisonment.

Hopefully, this little guide will ease some of the stress and teach you some of the basics.

It’s all about making sure your food is safe to eat:

You need to make sure that any food your business serves is safe to eat – this is a legal requirement, and good food hygiene practices will help with this!

The 4 Cs:

So, there are four things to remember, these are called the 4 Cs:

• Cleaning,
• Chilling,
• Cooking,
• Cross-Contamination.

Cleaning:

Good cleaning practices will stop harmful bacteria spreading around your kitchen and onto the food you’ll be serving.

Here are some good cleaning tips.

Ensure that:

• You and your staff wash hands thoroughly when handling food
• All food areas are cleaned between food preparation tasks
• All equipment is cleaned between food preparation tasks
• Create a cleaning schedule for your kitchen
• Show staff how items should be cleaned properly
• You and your team are cleaning as you go along
• All products are suitable for the job
• Food waste is taken out regularly

Did you know: most food businesses are prosecuted due to a lack of basic cleanliness… ?

Cooking:

Cook raw food thoroughly and it’ll kill all the harmful bacteria, but undercooking will cause food poisoning!

Did you know: It’s a legal requirement to keep hot food to the temperature of 63oC or above.

Chilling:

Keep food cold enough and it’ll stop harmful bacteria from growing.  In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it’s a legal requirement to keep cold food below 8oC.

Top tip: Set your fridge to 5oC to ensure it’s constantly cold enough.  Check fridge temperatures regularly every day and train your staff to do the same.

Cross-contamination:

If raw food comes into contact with cooked food, bacteria can spread and your customers may become ill.

Raw food may come into contact with cooked food if:

• You fail to wash your hands properly after handling raw food
• You don’t clean equipment correctly between preparations
• You position raw food on the top shelf of the fridge, above cooked food & juices drip down.

Top tip: Lower the risk of cross-contamination by keeping raw foods in separate fridges to cooked foods, by thoroughly cleaning work surfaces/equipment and by washing your hands regularly.

And lastly, food hygiene certificates:

You AND your staff will all need a  food hygiene certificate before starting work.  If you need one, we can help you! Find out more: click here.

Imagine the following scenario:  You’re on holiday in Bangkok.  You see an authentic market selling delicious fruits at cheap prices.  You’re hungry and the produce looks tempting.  You go over and grab something to eat.  But in this idyllic daydream, you’re probably not imagining the infested bacteria, antifungal agents or dangerous chemicals that are on the fruit’s surface, invisible to the eye.  You may not be able to see them, but rest assured: they’re probably going to ruin the rest of your holiday by making you ill.

It’s a harsh reality that many tourists have had to face in Bangkok over recent years.

Clamping down:

But  you’ll be pleased to know that authorities are clamping down on poor food hygiene practices in the city.

This week, authorities have declared that Vendors selling fresh and preserved fruit in Bangkok will risk prison sentences and fines if their produce is contaminated with bacteria, chemicals or other agents that shouldn’t be present.

This clampdown comes after authorities tested 153 samples from 38 different vendors in the greater Bangkok area. Over 67% of the tested sample had unsafe levels of the Coliform bacteria present.  16.2% were dyed with unsafe amounts of synthetic pigments and over 40% of the sample contained risky levels of anti-fungal agents.

Processed fruits didn’t fare well in the tests either.  Over 60% of the processed fruits sample contained dangerous chemicals.  Dark green and red pickled guavas were found to be the most contaminated fruits tested in the survey.

The survey, conducted by Authorities from the PM’s Office, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Medical Sciences and the Consumer Protection Board, also found that venders were not observing proper food hygiene measures when preparing fruit for customers.

Warning to consumers:

Poor food hygiene practices may leave both tourists and residents open to a number of nasty intestinal problems, including diarrhoea.

As such, consumers are being warned to stay away from coloured fruits and to ask vendors to handle and prepare fruit in a hygienic manner.

The authorities will be retesting the vendors next month.  If any produce is still contaminated vendors could face up to two years in prison and/or a large fine.

Images used for decorative purposes only, under CC: Malyousif

Make sure you comply with food hygiene laws!

Don’t risk your reputation and others’ health.  Instead, ensure your kitchen staff are fully trained in the latest food handling procedures…

Get food hygiene certificates for your team online:

• Under two hours
• Accredited by the CPD
• Posted the next working day
• Meets all  UK/EU legal requirements

Find out more by clicking here.

If you’ve scoffed at the pointless health and hygiene campaigns from the Food Standards Agency (FSA)  (you know the ones, they tell us to ‘eat healthier snacks, cook turkey correctly and hilariously, drink beverages other than beer for World Cup matches) you’ll probably be outraged to learn how much those campaigns cost us, the taxpayer.

Yesterday, the Telegraph reported that we’ve paid out the following astounding sums for these ridiculous marketing/awareness campaigns:

• £554,000 on Christmas Food Hygiene Campaign, which was designed to stop families undercooking turkeys

• £3.47 million pounds on the ‘salt awareness’ campaign, which included a quiz asking the following question, “too much salt is bad for your heart.  a. True b. False.”

• Plus over £3 million on further advertising and PR campaigns

Ouch.

You’ll probably be angered to learn that the FSA’s total budget was £152 million last year – that’s £152 million pounds of the taxpayers money that could have made a big impact on our society’s health in more beneficial ways.  What about subsidised gym memberships for the less fortunate?  Free cooking lessons for young Mums?  Activity days for the underprivileged?

But… Are the campaigns doing us good?

In defense of the campaigns, it looks like the salt campaign may have had a small effect.  Health Minister Anne Milton claims that recent urinary analyses have shown a significant fall in the population’s average daily salt intake since the campaign in 2008.  She also argues that nowadays, more people are checking food labels to see how much salt and fat they’re eating.  So this sounds positive, right?

But Tim Cox, of the Liberal Democrat group ‘Liberal Voice’ disagrees.  He’s campaigning for lower taxes and thinks that the £6 million + pounds spent on the campaigns is “scandalous.”

He states that:

“The British public do not need bureaucrats in Whitehall to tell them when to have dinner, or to advise them on what to eat during the World Cup. This is patronising, self-serving nonsense. The Coalition should cut all similar activities immediately.”

What do you think?

Are you happy to pay taxes that contribute to such initiatives, or do you simply think they’re a waste of time, effort and money?  Have you taken any of the adverts seriously, or do you think the FSA are well off the mark?  How would you invest the money to make Britain healthier?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Concerned about food hygiene? Ensure your team are up to speed – they can get a food hygiene certificate in just two hours online! Find out more: click here.

[reblogged from thesun]

  We all know about basic food hygiene (well, 99% of us do…), but it’s surprising how many people use the same dishcloth for weeks on end!

  It’s not rocket science, is it?  When you wash the dishes, you are removing bits of food.  And what does a lot of that stick to?  Yup, the dishcloth.  And if you don’t change it regularly, then it will harbour goodness knows how many germs!

  If you shop around, then you can buy washable cloths very cheaply.  These are great and you can bung them in the washing machine several times before they give up the ghost.  It’s a good idea to use a clean dishcloth every couple of days or they will just end up a haven for bacteria.

  Tea towels should also be changed regularly.  The most hygienic method of all is to allow your dishes to dry naturally.  But if you do insist on helping them along it is important to use a clean tea towel each time.

  So many germs can be got rid of by following these simple methods.

[reblogged from people.bu]

  What is it with the traditional clothing of a chef?  White is not really the most practical of colours for them to wear, surely?  I’d have thought that a darker colour would have been a more appropriate choice. 

  Think about it logically; they are working with food all day long.  Okay, so some of it is pretty solid, but there are always plenty of gooey sauces to contend with, not to mention custard or gravy. It is only going to be a matter of time before they get splashed with something messy; this is just inevitability.

  Have a close look at the next ‘celebrity chef’ that you see on television.  They always look so clean!  They must soak their clothes in bleach for a week at a time.  We all know how difficult it can be to remove splashes of curry or barbeque sauce! 

  At least it’s reassuring when you see a chef in a crisp white outfit.  If he has gone to the effort of wearing nice clean clothes, then his food hygiene knowledge must also be pretty good.  Maybe that’s the whole point of a chef dressing in white; it gives the customer peace of mind.