It is a legal requirement set by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for employers to ensure their employees are supervised and attain necessary skills from food safety training.
For any employee who handles food, appropriate training is not only best practice, it is a legal requirement. Whether working in a restaurant kitchen or a food manufacturing facility, a lack of proper training can result in a serious incident.
The best way to safeguard the health of consumers and employees, and your organisation’s reputation is by offering appropriate training that will adequately cover all the food safety basics, including controlling food safety hazards, best practices, and the law.
Praxis42 can assist in providing advice and guidance in the undertaking of a food hygiene audit, as well as through our eLearning food safety training modules.
Why food safety training is important
There are various reasons for offering food safety training to your employees. Some of these include:
Legislation
Food hygiene training is a legal requirement. Employees must receive appropriate supervision, instruction and training in good hygiene to do their job safely.
Food safety hazards
There are four different types of food hazards that must be considered in a food handling environment:
- Microbiological contamination (which includes food poisoning bacteria).
- Chemical contamination (such as from cleaning chemicals).
- Physical contamination (foreign bodies such as glass, pest related, hair, metal bolts/nuts).
- Allergenic contamination (food contamination with one of 14 key allergens that must be declared to customers).
Our food safety training course addresses the different micro-organisms and symptoms of food poisoning and foodborne disease. It will help food handlers to understand the importance of good food hygiene and the consequences of not following this.
Reducing the risk of contamination
Cross-contamination can pose a huge risk to customers. Cross-contamination occurs when read- to-eat or cooked food becomes contaminated with harmful bacteria, either directly by contact with the food containing the bacteria or indirectly by the food coming into contact with surfaces, hands, equipment or clothing contaminated with bacteria.
Cross-contamination should be considered wherever raw foods such as raw meat and unwashed vegetables are handled and where ready-to-eat and cooked foods are also handled. Ready-to-eat foods must be handled and stored to not become contaminated either directly or indirectly with food poisoning bacteria.
Temperature control
Bacteria need food, warmth, moisture and time to grow. They will proliferate at temperatures between 8°C and 63°C. Temperature control of high-risk foods is therefore important throughout the food operation. The legal requirement for fridge temperature is 8˚C or below.
Our food safety training course will equip food handlers with the knowledge required to ensure food is kept and reaches suitable temperatures, including during storage, cooking, cooling and hot holding.
Cleaning
The quality of food products and their microbiological safety will be compromised unless cleaning is diligently carried out and monitored effectively within all areas of the catering environment. Poor standards of cleaning may introduce sources of contamination.
Benefits of food safety training
Other than reducing the risk of your employees and customers becoming ill, food safety training comes with many benefits, including:
- Reducing food waste as food will be less likely to go out of date if stored and handled correctly.
- Improving the efficiency of employees by teaching proper practices and skills.
- Building a positive reputation (and trust) with employees and customers, knowing your organisation is a safe environment.
The safety of your employees and customers are the most important, and maintaining regular food safety training will help keep your organisation in line with legal requirements and reduce risks.
Praxis42 can assist in providing advice and guidance in the undertaking of a food hygiene audit, as well as through our eLearning food hygiene training modules.
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