Food hygiene procedures
While storing foods you must ensure that no cross-contamination takes place between raw and ready-to-eat food. For example, whilst storing food in the fridge, raw food must be kept on the lower shelves while cooked food should be kept on the upper shelves. Segregation of raw and cooked/ready-to-eat foods must also be ensured at working stations, food preparation areas, and while handling food. It is therefore recommended to have separate chopping boards for raw, ready-to-eat, and cooked foods, and to use a colour code system for them. Guidance for further understanding cross-contamination risks is available from the Food Standards Agency.
Chopping boards must always be kept in good repair. This means chopping boards should always be kept clean and have a smooth area that does not promote microbial growth. The use of wooden chopping boards is not recommended since they are difficult to disinfect effectively.
Every person working in a food-handling area is to maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and is to wear suitable clean protective clothing. Staff must not prepare or handle food if they are suffering from:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhoea
- Have infected cuts or boils
- Feel unwell – especially if they have returned from abroad in the last two weeks.
If staff has suffered from vomiting and diarrhoea, they should not prepare food for others until 48 hours after the symptoms have stopped.
Temperature control
Businesses should have in place suitable temperature-controlled handling and storage equipment with sufficient capacity for maintaining foodstuffs at appropriate temperatures, such as fridges, freezers, and temperature-controlled display cabinets. These should also be designed to allow for temperatures to be monitored and, where necessary, recorded.
High-risk foods which may support the growth of food poisoning bacteria must always be kept below 8°C during cold storage. This is a legal requirement set out under The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 (Schedule 4). It is good practice to operate refrigerators between 1-5°C to allow for any fluctuating temperatures.
High-risk foods should also be cooked to reach a core temperature of 80°C or more for at least six seconds, and if cooled, should be cooled to room temperature within a maximum of 90 minutes to then be refrigerated. If the business is hot holding the food, you must ensure that food is kept at 63°C or above. Further information and advice can be found below on our Ealing Council Food Business Information Sheets.
The use of a digital probe thermometer is recommended to check the temperature of foodstuffs regularly. It is also good practice to keep a record of those temperature checks.
Further guidance
Further guidance is available via request from Ealing Council’s food safety team. Businesses can request our food information sheets which provide guidance on the following topics:
- Pest control
- Allergen Information
- Butchers with retail elements
- Cooking, cooling, and reheating high-risk foods
- Doner kebabs
- Egg fried rice
- Eggs in catering
To request these documents, please email: foodsafety@ealing.gov.uk or telephone: 020 8825 6666
High-risk food advice
Certain foods and food processes have higher risks associated with them due to the food safety hazards they present. Businesses are therefore advised to implement specific procedures and controls to minimize the hazards posed by these foods and processes. Links to some guidance from the Food Standards Agency on some of the high-risk foods or processes are available below:
Food safety management systems: HACCP and SFBB
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) or Safer Food for Better Business (SFBB) are food safety management systems that businesses must have in place. Each business can choose to have either depending on the nature, size, and complexity of the operations being carried out at the premises.
HACCP/SFBB will help each business to identify the steps and activities that are critical to ensuring food safety. Once the steps have been identified, businesses should ensure they are implemented, maintained, monitored, and reviewed.
Article five of EU regulation (EC) 852/ 2004 makes it compulsory for businesses to maintain a HACCP-based food safety management system.
Numerous food safety management systems can be downloaded for free:
- Safer food better businesses for caterers/restaurants
- Safer food better businesses for Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lankan cuisines
- Safer food better businesses for Chinese cuisines
- Safer food better business for childminders/nurseries
- Safer food better business for residential care homes
There are also CookSafe manuals that businesses can use, and these are available in Bengali, Chinese, Urdu, and Punjabi.
Businesses should download the appropriate copy of the SFBB or CookSafe document and complete all relevant sections and the diary sheets.
Alternatively, a food business can create its own system but will need to ensure that HACCP procedures are followed and that statements are made on how to control the hazardous aspects of its business. Guidance for creating your own HACCP procedures.
If the business makes use of specialist equipment, such as a vacuum packing machine, then it must be ensured that you carry out a risk assessment and record your findings.
Training
Food business operators must ensure that food handlers are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity. This is a legal requirement stipulated in Retained EU Regulation: 852/2004 Annex II Chapter XII. Therefore, staff may need to attend a food hygiene training course. It is recommended that food handlers should be trained to a level that is appropriate to the type of food being prepared. See information on training courses or feel free to carry out your own internet research. The business should ensure they use a competent provider for food safety training.
If food handlers do not have any formal training, then they must receive adequate instruction and/or supervision.