Following food law and compliance are integral parts of any food handling/producing business. The food business can ensure compliance with food law by operating a Food Safety Management System. This system should be based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.
It is a legal requirement for any food business to demonstrate what procedures are followed to ensure that the food it handles is safe to consume. All procedures must be recorded in written form.
For a food handling business to ensure food law and compliance, everyone who handles food must be trained and qualified in safe food handling. For easy and convenient ways to ensure safe food handling competencies, eLearn Safety developed fully online Food Safety courses with learner in mind. All learners are supported throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. eLearn Safety staff has extensive training experience with many years industry experience. Priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace. Once the training has been completed, all training and refresher up-to-date training records should be kept.
A food business must be able to demonstrate where foodstuffs came from, where they went (if the business sells to retailers) and who did what in the meantime. The procedures that are followed (such as daily checks) must be kept in place permanently and all records must be available for examination by the relevant Authorities, in most cases Environmental Health Officers from HSE on the behalf of the FSAI.
Operating an effective Food Safety Management System means that aspects of the running of a food business are routinely checked and recorded. This will enable the business to comply with both; legal requirements and fulfil due diligence requisite.
Everyone deserves to be protected against food that might make them ill. This is what the food safety law aims to do. By operating an effective Food Safety Management System, businesses can abide by the law more easily. Good procedures and practices will go a long way towards ensuring a full compliance. Unfortunately this is not always the case. In October 2023, the FSAI served five enforcement orders on food business. According to the FSAI, some of the reasons for the Enforcement Orders in October include:
…cooking trays not washed after use and congealed with grease and charred food particles; mould growth visible on the internal surfaces of a milkshake blender with a foul odour detected when the lid was removed; the presence of undeclared allergens in food with a potential to cause a life threatening allergic reaction; no evidence of a food safety culture; a drinking water sample taken from the food business indicating contamination of the supply; large open containers of raw chicken left on various surfaces throughout the food premises at room temperature, permitting the growth of bacteria; no hand washing observed during the inspection; filthy premises with dirty cardboard used both as a food contact surface for cooked rice and on the flooring throughout the premises.
Providing unsafe food is a serious food business failure. This may result in serious legal actions, prosecutions and imprisonment.
Please remember – it is a legal requirement that staff who are involved in a food environment are trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity!
Myelearnsafety offers fully online Food Safety (HACCP) courses.
To find out more, please check our Courses page.
Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie
Cleaning and food safety are inseparable terms. A clean kitchen is one that has been thoroughly cleaned to prevent the contamination of food by living and non-living contaminants. Cleaning safely does not mean cleaning areas and surfaces you can see only. Cleaning safely means cleaning in places you cannot see.
High priority cleaning should be given to items that are frequently touched. Examples include water taps, door handles, light switches, etc. These should be cleaned more than once a day to prevent contamination and should be cleaned and allowed to dry naturally after every shift. Allowing items to dry naturally removes the chance of contamination by using towels.
A kitchen must be properly cleaned and sanitised. It is of utmost importance to follow the guides and instructions provided with the cleaning agents to prevent chemical contamination of food.
The following six-point cleaning plan is one example of achieving cleaning and food safety:
All kitchen work areas should be cleaned after each task.
You can find out all about essential food safety in eLearn Safety fully online food safety course Food Safety (HACCP) Level 1 which is based on the training criteria set down by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s Guide to Food Safety Training Level 1.
There are many additional resources available online that look into great detail of cleaning and food safety. For example SafeFood has plenty of very useful information on their website page titled Kitchen hygiene and food safety.
To keep the kitchen clean, always ensure the following:
Never store chemicals in the same area as food. If food gets contaminated, it can seriously harm all that consume contaminated food.
Please remember – it is a legal requirement that staff who are involved in a food environment are trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity!
Myelearnsafety offers fully online Food Safety (HACCP) courses.
To find out more, please check our Courses page.
Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie
Unwitting food poisoning is the result of people being unaware of basic food safety. It is usually brought on by implementing unsafe practices, taking chances and common misconceptions. Examples of common misconceptions are washing raw chicken before cooking or smelling food to make sure it’s not gone off.
Food poisoning is any disease of an infectious or toxic nature caused by the consumption of food or water. This includes all food and waterborne illness regardless of symptoms. They usually appear within 1 to 72 hours after eating contaminated or poisonous food. You can read some additional information about food poisoning in our blog entry Food Poisoning from 10th February 2023.
Most cases of food poisoning are the result of people not working properly in the kitchen. Another often cause is not paying proper attention to the delivery and storage of food. This is the case when we talk about food handling at home and in a food business.
By nature most food poisoning is unwitting food poisoning. However, it is most certainly always preventable. This is why training and education are important. To ensure you know how to handle food safely we recommend completing one of eLearn Safety online Food Safety courses. The Food Safety (HACCP) Level 1 is a good starting point.
There are many causes of food poisoning, all of which are avoidable. The most common causes are:
As Matthew Gilmour, a Research Scientist and Director of the Food Safety Research Network at Quadram Institute in a report published on RTE (originally published by The Conversation) points out – small routine things, such as ‘sniff test’ might facilitate unwitting food poisoning. We all usually do it, as an unconscious reaction, in a hope to detect any issues with the stored food. However, most food poisoning microbes have no smell. In addition, microbes like Listeria and Salmonella are going to be near impossible to pick up with the sniff test.
As Dr. Gilmour points out “energies are best spent on storing [food] at the right temperature and cooking them for the right amount of time, rather than trusting […] nose to sniff out a pathogen”.
Please remember – it is a legal requirement that staff who are involved in a food environment are trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity!
Myelearnsafety offers fully online Food Safety (HACCP) courses.
To find out more, please check our Courses page.
Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie
Food safety and its importance matter for many, but mostly two ‘main’ reasons:
There are many various definitions of what food is, but for the purposes of catering, food may be defined as:
Any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, that is intended to be, or reasonably expected to be, ingested by humans.
Therefore food is not only meal such as, burgers, steaks, salads, etc. Food includes drink, chewing gum, sweets, condiments, ice, flavourings and any substance, including water, intentionally incorporated into food during its manufacture, preparation or treatment.
Food safety and its importance can often by undervalued. But ignoring it might have series consequences. If food safety practices and handling standards are poor, food may become contaminated. This might result in people who consume said food to become ill. In extreme cases, food poisoning can be fatal.
If an incidence of food poisoning is traced back to particular business, both, the owner of food premises and an employee who was deemed negligent in preparing/serving the meal could be found liable. They could be prosecuted, and possibly fined, imprisoned, or have their business closed down. At the very least, it will most likely result in loss of customers.
Establishing good practices with regard to food safety will keep both customers and staff safe, and be good for business.
Food poisoning is an unpleasant illness which usually occurs within 1 to 72 hours of eating contaminated or poisonous food. Symptoms can be various and can include abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting as the body seeks to remove the poisons and prevent damage to the vital organs. The condition can last usually from 1 to 7 days, but can last longer. Other symptoms that suggest a case of food poisoning is particularly serious and requires medical attention include passing blood, either by vomiting or in diarrhoea, slurred speech, blurred vision, or mental confusion.
Identifying the source of the poisoning is necessary, but not always straightforward. This is because the illness might not have been caused by the last food to be eaten.
Catering businesses can make a huge difference by following procedures and practices that promote food safety. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, simple systems and rules work best as people find them easier to remember and stick to. All of the procedures and practices together form what is known as Food Safety Management System. You can read more about it in our blog entry from 5th May 2023 titled Food Safety Management System (FSMS).
The Food safety Authority of Ireland is a statutory body with main function to ensure that food produced, distributed or marketed in Ireland meets the highest standards of food safety and hygiene reasonably available and to ensure that food complies with legal requirements and recognised codes of good practice.
Food legislation is enforced on behalf of the FSAI by a network of official agencies working under service contract to the FSAI.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act, 1998 contains enforcement provisions which are in addition to the powers to prosecute and other provisions on specific pieces of food legislation. The provisions in the FSAI Act provide a means of reacting to and dealing with situations posing a risk to public health.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has the power to carry out the following in order to determine compliance with food legislation:
In July 2023 the FSAI issued ten Enforcement Orders served on food businesses. Commenting, Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive, FSAI, said that while the majority of food businesses adhere to food safety regulations, it is clear that some businesses are not fully compliant. Dr. Byrne continued ” … All food businesses, from the established to the newly opened, must fully adhere with food safety regulations at all times. Enforcement action will be taken for transgressions, in the interest of public health protection.”.
Please remember – it is a legal requirement that staff who are involved in a food environment are trained and/or supervised commensurate with their work activity!
Myelearnsafety offers fully online Food Safety (HACCP) courses.
To find out more, please check our Courses page.
Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie
