Including those offering delivery/takeaway service
As a result of the government restrictions placed on restaurants, cafés, public houses & staff catering services during the current pandemic, the majority of public facing hospitality & food businesses are now closed for their “normal” mode of delivery. There are, of course, many operations that continue to provide essential services for key workers. These may be canteens or cafeterias for workers in food manufacturing, transport, factories or hospital meals services to name just a few, and these caterers are doing a sterling job keeping those in the front-line well fed.
Food outlets and catering services that remain open, whether providing the services mentioned above, or a restaurant, pub or café having changed their usual business model to a takeaway or delivered meal service, need to ensure that they continue to be compliant with food safety legislation. Alongside this they also need to meet the requirements of working in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Right now, there is an almost daily stream of information, guidelines and requirements being issued and updated as the situation changes, and all businesses should be aware of the requirements being placed upon them – it is still the responsibility of the food business owner to be aware of what they need to do to comply with legislation regardless whether this is legislation that was published years ago or yesterday!
Food business owners can find help and guidance on both general food safety legislation and Safer Food Better Business, if this is the food management system you adopt in your business, on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website here.
The FSA also has additional information on working through COVID-19 pandemic here.
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health also have a dedicated area on their website with COVID-19 specific information and that is available here.
And then the regulations issued on 11th May by the government to provide business / working environment can be found here.
That’s lots of information that I am sure most food businesses currently operating, or considering re-opening, probably don’t even know exists, never mind have read, absorbed and applied the appropriate requirements to their food business.
From my experience most independent food business operators may not even realise the requirements changed when they changed from a restaurant to a takeaway service. Perhaps they don’t know where to find the information or are maybe struggling to make sense of all these different documents. I have to admit some of it baffles me (more by quantity rather than content) and I’ve been studying this stuff most of my working hours recently.
The aim of all the guidance and regulations is to help you keep your business, your staff and your customers safe, which is as it should be, the last thing we all need right now is an outbreak of food poisoning!
If you have read through it all & implemented the changes and records to your business, then brilliant – job well done! But if you are struggling to get your head round it, or if you just need some guidance and clarity then why not drop me an email, or give me a call and together we can get it sorted. I have already drafted a generic guidance document, using all the appropriate reference documents above, that I can email across, which will help get you started. If needed I will be happy to talk through your business challenges and the controls needed to ensure you meet all the operational safety requirements and can concentrate on creating great food rather than more paperwork.
Stay safe, take care and let me know if I can help you, there’s an email contact link on my website!
