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Every food business can achieve a five star food hygiene rating. All the food safety advice you need has been split into five easy to understand sections, to help make sure you are ready for when the Council EHO arrives!
There is a lot of good food safety advice out there, but it all seems to be written to go in a textbook. Here you will read it in simple terms and with real life experiences mixed in. Learn what an EHO looks for on an inspection and explore examples of where food businesses have ended up in court. Understand what happened and make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you!
How to prepare, cook and store food safely. Learn all the critical temperatures and understand the importance of keeping raw and ready-to-eat foods separate. We also discuss the importance of choosing good suppliers and checking our deliveries.
All you need to know about cleaning efficiently and effectively. Learn about two stage cleaning, contact time, what cloths to use, and how to store your chemicals. With all the EHO jargon explained!
Be aware of how your building can ruin your food hygiene rating. Learn the importance of hand wash basins, discover what basic pest control measures you need to know and how to look out for pests!
Hand washing, use of gloves in the kitchen and food handlers wearing clean clothing, are all important food safety matters discussed. We also learn what to do with sick staff, and talk about toilet facilities!
Discover how to keep paperwork to a minimum and understand what the EHO is looking for and why. We explain the jargon of critical control points and look at what they really mean, and we also tackle the difficult topic of allergen control.
Having a five star food hygiene rating will make a significant difference to your business and ultimately make you more money! It is obvious to EHOs that businesses who do not take care of food safety are always complaining their business is poor, but business owners don't seem to understand why! Well, here are five reasons why!
If you would like personal advice on food safety in your business, please get in contact to see how I can assist you.
So many businesses do not get a food hygiene rating of five for the same reasons. There are typical problems that seem to plague businesses. It’s crazy that the same issues constantly turn up, but they do. Make sure you are not falling into the same traps by making sure none of these apply to you!
If you have a 5 star food hygiene rating, you’re considered 'very good'. You can be rated 'good' (4 star), or 'generally satisfactory' (3 star). Achieve any of these ratings and you’re unlikely to get into any real trouble.
However, get 2 stars and below and you can be in serious trouble with the EHO. Your business is at serious risk of injuring someone and the EHO will not let that continue to happen. You may end up in court with a big fine, or even prison. Here are the top five reasons this happens to food businesses.
Maintaining hygiene in mobile food businesses is an added challenge given the environments they often operate in, and it is one that sampling results in 2019 indicate is not being managed very well! Over half of environmental swabs were unsatisfactory, with poor results mostly occurring on chopping boards, worktops and food containers. 80% of cloths were unsatisfactory too!
Perhaps the most concerning were the results of water samples, with coliform bacteria detected in over half of the water samples. Indicators of faecal contamination were found in 14% of samples!
How does faecal contamination get into a container only used to hold drinking water you may ask? And if it does, why is it still there when the EHO turns up? Answer: poor food safety practices, poor personal hygiene, and poor cleaning!
Businesses need to understand that water containers need cleaning too, and not just every week. This is too long! A container that is filled and re-filled on a regular basis must be cleaned regularly and with a suitable sanitiser.
Preventing food from becoming contaminated is vital to running a safe food business. Here are five common sources of contamination every food business owner needs to be aware of.
So, what will the EHO most likely look for when they come to visit you? Of course, the EHO will look at lots of different things and will usually be with you about 90 minutes. But it doesn’t hurt to know that these areas are always going to be looked at and are the cause of many businesses not obtaining a five star food hygiene rating.
Five Star Food Safety has developed online CPD training for food safety professionals, to ensure you have the necessary knowledge to implement food hygiene legislation. Our e-learning training is designed to meet the needs of the Food Standards Agency Competency Framework, which means you can be confident taking our courses will continue your professional development in the food safety sector.