When public sector caterers focus on sustainability, the conversation often centres around meat reduction, organic sourcing, or eliminating single-use plastics. These are vital steps; but the most immediate environmental threat in any high-volume kitchen is food waste. Globally, roughly one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted, contributing heavily to greenhouse gas emissions. For schools, hospitals, and care facilities operating on tightly squeezed budgets, food safety practices act as your primary defence against this waste.
A single food safety failure, whether it’s a broken cold chain on delivery, an incorrectly cooled batch of soup, or a cross-contamination incident, could force a kitchen to discard an entire service's worth of food. When high-volume catering operations throw out food due to poor hygiene or improper storage, they aren't just wasting the budget; they are discarding all the carbon, water, and energy used to produce and transport those ingredients in the first place.
Supplier management is a vital element of your food safety management system. Comprehensive, regular audits of your suppliers are essential, as they allow you to check that they are producing, packing and delivering food safely and that their allergen management is scrupulous. It also allows you to assess their traceability processes - vital in case of a product or ingredient recall - but also a key opportunity to consider sustainability.
Temperature and condition checks are a fundamental food safety action at the goods-in / delivery stage. High-risk food stored within the temperature danger zone (8°C - 63°C) provides the ideal environment for pathogenic growth. Damaged packaging exposes food to potential contamination - biological, chemical, physical and allergenic - so thorough visual checks are also essential. Food waste is bad news wherever it occurs in the supply chain, so choosing reputable suppliers with reliable temperature controlled delivery methods is essential.
A diligent supplier that has proven food safety credentials is also likely to have comprehensive and transparent traceability data that allow you to understand provenance and food miles, production methods and information about animal welfare, ethics and social impact. Including these elements as part of your supplier audit increases the value of your HACCP process, as it can reflect your business' ethics and values in your purchasing decisions. These credentials are also key for participation in initiatives that support and accredit your sustainability efforts, such as the Soil Association's Food For Life Served Here awards. And that is a great story to tell your pupils, patients and customers too.
Commercial food safety processes focus on minimising pathogenic growth, by controlling time, temperature, moisture and access to nutrients. Setting and monitoring critical control points allows a food business to anticipate and identify potential food safety risks before they lead to spoilage and therefore waste. In this way, an operation with high food safety standards is meeting a central tenet of sustainability - treating resources respectfully and minimising waste production.
Most good food safety practices contribute to the reduction of waste. For example - to prepare a large quantity of a high risk food for production, it is good practice to portion into smaller batches and prepare a batch at a time, allowing the rest to remain refrigerated for the maximum possible time. Reduction of time in the temperature danger zone reduces the opportunity for pathogenic growth and therefore possible spoilage and waste. Another example: when operating a buffet, heat small quantities at a time, reducing the possibility of waste when food breaches the hot hold time limit.
Great food safety practices and high ethical standards are likely to go hand-in-hand in food businesses that pay attention to details. A key part of any EHO inspection is assessing 'Confidence in Management'. This element examines how well the leadership team has created a 'food safety culture' - a drive within the whole staff team to do the right thing, whether or not someone is watching. Building a strong team ethic relies on good principles and attention to detail from the top down, underpinning every single kitchen practice.
As well as being an essential element of food safety, managing stock carefully makes good business sense, as better quality ingredients create better food delivered to the customer. A well organised food store, solid pest proofing, clear labelling and date management systems, and separated storage of high-risk and ready-to eat foods are all examples of managing stock safely and responsibly.
In retail, educating the customer on the meaning of best before and use-by dates, and using food surplus apps can be a great way to access new customers, or encourage existing customers to try something new. Good stock management means better quality and less waste - and greater sustainability.
Marrying food hygiene with environmental targets comes down to the daily habits of your kitchen team. By embedding clear food safety principles into your kitchen culture, your sustainability metrics will naturally improve:
FIFO (First In, First Out): Implementing a strict rotation system isn’t just a prerequisite for a flawless EHO inspection; it is excellent resource management. Ensuring older stock is safely used before it spoils dramatically reduces the volume of waste heading to the bins.
Precision Temperature Control: Keeping refrigerators calibrated strictly between 1°C and 5°C doesn’t just stop the growth of dangerous pathogenic bacteria like Listeria—it actively prevents premature food spoilage. A commercial fridge that fluctuates or runs too warm wastes both electricity and the precious shelf-life of your ingredients.
Smart Freezing: Utilising use-by dates dynamically allows teams to freeze seasonal or bulk-purchased ingredients at peak freshness, preserving them legally and safely for future menus instead of letting them spoil in ambient dry stores.
Ultimately, you cannot achieve long-term sustainability goals in catering operations without a properly educated, compliant workforce. When catering staff are trained to view food hygiene not as a rigid, box-ticking exercise, but as a vital tool for preserving precious food resources, daily habits permanently change.
Before investing heavily in complex external environmental audits or expensive green tech, look at your kitchen’s foundational food safety habits. By getting the fundamentals of hygiene, stock control, and temperature management right, you aren't just protecting vulnerable diners from foodborne illnesses - you are taking a massive, measurable step forward on your organisation's sustainability journey.
Want to empower your catering team to run a safer, more sustainable kitchen? Explore our fully accredited online training courses designed to help public sector teams reduce waste, maintain flawless compliance, and achieve maximum efficiency.
Why The Safer Food Group? As a Food for Life Served Here supplier, we are committed to supporting catering teams in their sustainability journey. We're a small, lean, agile company with a carbon footprint to match - providing a flexible, scalable training solution to individual learners, multi-site, large employers and everyone in between. Food safety is our expertise, it's what makes us tick, and we enjoy the challenges presented by all sectors in the food industry.
Courses developed for Schools and Education
Level 2 Food Hygiene for Schools
Allergy Awareness for Schools (non-catering staff)
Courses developed for Hospitals, Health and Care
Food Service Safety in Care and Healthcare
Understanding Listeria in Care and Healthcare
When it comes to pupil safety, school sites need to be considered as complex, moving eco-systems, rather than just a series of classrooms.
With food allergies, there is a dangerous misconception that still lingers in some UK schools: that allergen safety is a kitchen problem. With Benedict's Law driving new legislation, it’s time to look at the big picture before the September 2026 deadline. Food is never contained to just the dining hall - and therefore neither are the risks of allergies.
If a pupil suffers anaphylactic shock, the first responder won't necessarily be a caterer or a designated first aider. It will be whoever is standing closest.
Here is how to consider your school’s hidden allergy risks and ensure your school team is ready in time for the new academic year.
Schools are busy, shared environments where pupils move between classrooms, dining areas, and extracurricular activities throughout the day. Because food moves with them, responsibility for managing risk cannot be restricted to one individual or a single staffing team.
Consider how easily allergenic ingredients can slip into environments where food isn’t even the main focus:
As a school leader, ask yourself three critical questions about your setting today:
Your staff members do not need to be medical experts to keep pupils safe. But under the upcoming 2026 guidelines, they do need a foundational understanding of food allergies and how to respond in an emergency.
In a medical crisis, minutes matter. Waiting for a designated first aider or a paramedic to arrive can result in delayed treatment and, in the worst cases, a tragic, avoidable fatality.
The reality of school life means that a teacher, teaching assistant, lunchtime supervisor, or member of the support team will likely be the first person to notice something is wrong. They are your true First Responders. They are the ones who must:
These moments can feel routine, but they are exactly where a chain of events either ends safely or escalates into a serious health emergency.
Ensuring that every adult on your premises remains vigilant and ready to act requires a streamlined, whole-school approach to training.
To help School Business Managers and Headteachers prepare for the upcoming statutory changes, The Safer Food Group has launched a brand-new Allergy Awareness for Schools course. Tailored specifically for educational settings (including academies, sixth forms, and colleges), it empowers your entire workforce to act confidently in an emergency.
We invite school leaders and business managers to take a complimentary trial of our new course. Evaluate the material, view the learners tracking tools, and see how easy it is to protect your pupils and embed confidence and compliance for the upcoming school year. Drop a message to info@theasferfoodgroup.com for further information.
In a busy kitchen, superficial cleaning isn't enough to pass an inspection or protect a customer. Ideally, all equipment, crockery and utensils should be cleaned in a commercial dishwasher, which reaches adequate temperatures to clean and disinfect thoroughly. In situations where this is not practical or possible, use a structured process that removes both visible dirt and invisible bacteria, commonly known as the 4-Stage Clean.
The goal of the first stage is to remove the visible waste. If you skip this, your cleaning water will become dirty almost immediately, and your chemicals won't be able to reach the surface of the equipment.
Now that the loose debris is gone, you need to tackle the grease and bio-films that stick to the surfaces of the utensils and equipment.
This is the most critical stage to prevent food poisoning. Disinfection denatures or reduces pathogens such as E. coli or Salmonella to a level that is safe for humans.
The final stage ensures the equipment is ready for use and won't contaminate the food with chemical residues.
To maintain a 5-star rating, avoid these three frequent mistakes:
Understanding how to clean effectively is a key part of maintaining a safe kitchen, and a fundamental element of Level 2 Food Hygiene training. Ensuring your staff understand and implement good cleaning practices, and can explain them to an EHO is a great step towards a high "Confidence in Management" score in your next inspection.
To help maintain your cleaning routine, download a free cleaning schedule template from our Resources area.
Awareness about allergies, intolerances and auto-immune diseases is thankfully increasing within the UK. Legislation, policies and guidance continue to be put in place to direct food businesses in the most effective ways to support their customers. But incidents and accidents continue to occur, and eating out can feel anything but safe for people who may suffer adverse reactions to food.
We examine the difference between the three most common conditions, and ask what processes and strategies are most effective to keep customers safe.
Every year in the UK thousands of hospitalisations and multiple deaths occur as a result of adverse reactions to certain foods. Food allergies, intolerances and coeliac disease present serious life-threatening or life-altering consequences to sufferers. It is crucial that everyone connected with the production, sale and service of food understands how adverse food reactions occur and what actions and processes in the kitchen may cause harm if not completed correctly.
Food allergy
A food allergy occurs when the body's immune system reacts unusually to specific foods.
The allergic reaction can range from mild, for example a rash, to violent and life threatening, for example difficulty breathing and even death. The more serious reactions are referred to as Anaphylactic shock which usually happens within seconds or minutes of eating even a small amount of the food. A common food people develop a serious allergy to is peanuts. In some cases even breathing in a tiny amount of peanut fragments or dust can be sufficient to trigger a life threatening attack.
Food intolerance
A food intolerance occurs when someone has difficulty digesting certain foods and can have an unpleasant though rarely life threatening physical reaction.
Symptoms can range from mild bloating and stomach pain, to severe digestive system disorders. Food intolerances usually occur over a longer period, often building up over time. The most common food intolerance globally is lactose. Lactose is an enzyme found in dairy products - which are themselves found as an unexpected ingredient in many processed foods.
Coeliac disease is a life threatening condition linked to the presence of gluten in the diet. Coeliac disease is not an allergy or an intolerance. Once developed, it is a lifelong autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy tissues when gluten is consumed.
In a healthy gut, tiny finger-like projections called villi line the small intestine to absorb nutrients. In coeliac disease, these villi become flattened and inflamed. This leads to malabsorption, causing long-term issues like anaemia, osteoporosis, and extreme fatigue. The treatment of coeliac disease is a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet. Even trace cross-contamination can cause internal damage, even if the person feels no symptoms.
For Coeliacs, the presence of even small amounts of gluten in the diet can permanently damage the body’s ability to digest food. Gluten is found in cereals including wheat, oats, barley and rye, all used extensively in the food industry including in the production of flour. Even gluten-removed foods can cause damage to someone with coeliac disease.
Coeliac disease is often misunderstood as an intolerance to gluten - but as you will see from the table below, the causes and symptoms are quite different.
| Coeliac Disease | Food Allergy | Food Intolerance | |
| Type of Reaction | Autoimmune | Immune (IgE) | Digestive/Chemical |
| System Involved | Immune system (attacks itself) | Immune system (mistakes food for threat) | Digestive system (difficulty processing food) |
| Onset of Symptoms | Delayed (hours to days) | Rapid (minutes to 2 hours) | Often delayed (hours to days) |
| Affected by | Trace amounts (mg) | Trace amounts (mg) | Some sufferers may tolerate small amounts |
| Diagnosis | Blood test & Biopsy | Skin prick / IgE Blood test | Exclusion diet |
(In keeping with standard food safety policy, in this section we have used the term 'allergenic ingredients' or 'allergenic hazards' to describe any food or ingredient that could cause an adverse reaction due to allergy, intolerance or coeliac disease)
To prevent allergenic hazards entering food, food businesses must put control measures in place, including:
Producing a dish that is safe for someone with adverse reactions starts before their order is taken. Cross contamination can take place before a single ingredient is used, even before they enter your premises.
The key to this stage is ensuring that no ingredient can mix with any other before you receive them, during delivery or storage. Thorough supplier audits, good processes for receiving foods into your premises and storage solutions that keep ingredients securely separated are vital foundations to producing safe food.
The key to producing 'allergen free' food is to prevent a specific allergenic ingredient entering the non-allergenic dish you are creating; even minute quantities can cause adverse reactions. Cross contamination of ingredients can occur when an ingredient is passed from surface to surface - think about hands, utensils, work surfaces and equipment. Traces of ingredients can also travel through liquids - consider traces of gluten that will be found in oil after frying a battered piece of cod. That oil is now unsuitable for foods prepared for someone who is intolerant to gluten, and can cause very serious harm to anyone with coeliac disease.
Allergenic ingredients can even circulate through air - we all know of the risk to peanut allergy sufferers on planes. Therefore it’s very important to think food preparation through carefully.
There is very little point in carefully preparing 'safe' food if the process fails when the food is served. The objective is to prevent cross contamination within the food service area, the retail area where the product is sold and the delivery process leading up to the handover of home-delivered foods.
Creating a safe customer environment includes providing clear information for your customers. Methods of communication with customers include display signage, labelling on packaging, information on menus and verbally. Some allergen communication requirements are specified by law, and depend on how your food is prepared and sold. If you work in a food business, make sure you’re confident you know what to do when working with allergenic ingredients and answering questions from customers.
In conclusion, the three major causes of adverse food reactions - allergies, intolerances and coeliac disease - have striking similarities and a number of differences. But all customers of food businesses deserve to be kept safe, through good systems and processes and clear customer communications.
Understanding the challenges faced by people with adverse food reactions helps food businesses to create a safer environment for all. Charities including Coeliac UK offer excellent information, insights and resources, and campaign for greater awareness.
At The Safer Food Group, as well as allergy training for teams and supervisors in food businesses, we provide free advice and guidance through our Knowledge blog - like this post! If you would like to arrange training for your team or business, drop us a message on info@thesaferfoodgroup.com and let us know how we can help.
The information above was adapted from the Safer Food group's Level 2 Allergy Awareness training and Level 2 Food Safety training.
Navigating food safety involves more than just following a checklist. While standard procedures protect most people, there are biological complexities - like cross-reactivity - that are impossible to control via conventional processes. This guide recaps the basics of allergens and then examines a more challenging element that is an emerging concern for food businesses.
Allergens are proteins found in certain foods that cause the immune system to overreact. For most people, these proteins are harmless. However, for someone with a food allergy, the body identifies the protein as a threat and releases chemicals like histamine to "fight" it. This results in an allergic reaction, which can range from mild itching or hives to life-threatening anaphylaxis.
In the UK, food law identifies 14 specific allergens that must be clearly highlighted on food labels or menus:
Important Note: These lists are not universal. Outside the UK, listed allergens may differ: for example, there are only 9 listed allergens in America. People with allergies need to be aware when travelling or reading labels from imported foods, as a normally "safe" product abroad may contain ingredients not highlighted as allergens.
As a minimum, food businesses are required to give customers information about the presence of the 14 listed allergens within their foods. The method of communicating these allergens depends on the type of business, how the customer places an order and the way the food is served to the customer.
In order to provide clarity for allergy sufferers, food businesses should have some form of allergy policy that states their position on allergen management. Some employ systems and processes that allow them to offer food that is safe for allergy sufferers. In order to achieve this, they typically employ strict Allergen Management Systems, including:
Cross-reactivity occurs when the body reacts to a food because its proteins are biologically similar to something else the person is already allergic to. The body "mistakes" one protein for another. This is not a labelling error or a case of cross-contamination; it is a biological reaction to a correctly prepared ingredient.
Common patterns of cross-reactivity include:
Want to know more about specific cross-reactive foods? Food Allergy Aware have a great factsheet with more information and lots more support for people with allergies.
The biggest challenge is that cross-reactivity sits outside the standard system. A dish can be 100% compliant with the law, correctly prepared, and accurately described, yet still cause a reaction.
Because cross-reactivity varies significantly between individuals, it cannot be reliably predicted by a food business catering for a general population. Even when a business does everything right, a risk may still exist. This means safe practice is not just about following rules, but about recognising the limits of the system.
While you cannot eliminate the biological risk of cross-reactivity, you can manage it through better information and consistency. In a food business that operates a strict allergen management process, a lot of the bases will already be covered, but these are the key steps to look out for:
By being transparent and consistent, food businesses can help customers make informed and confident choices about their own specific sensitivities.
Want to get allergy management right in your food business? The Safer Food Group offers two training courses - Level 2 Allergy Awareness is perfect for food handlers as it explains the basic science of allergies and intolerances and looks at the practical, everyday steps required to produce safe food. Level 3 Allergy Management takes a deeper dive into the science and helps the food business leader risk assess, create and implement a comprehensive allergy process.
In any kitchen - whether at home or in a professional catering environment - understanding the difference between high-risk and low-risk foods is a key element of good food hygiene. Managing these items correctly is essential to prevent food poisoning.
A food is considered high risk if it provides the ideal conditions for harmful bacteria to grow and multiply. Food is considered high risk if it is moist, high in protein, and either ready to eat, or a raw ingredient, as these foods naturally harbour dangerous pathogens.
Technically, high-risk foods are defined by three main characteristics:
Because these foods are moist and nutrient-rich, even slight contamination can lead to a dangerous bacterial load in a very short amount of time if kept at the wrong temperature.
The primary difference lies in stability and the likelihood of bacterial growth.
Bread is not classified as high risk - this is because bread is relatively dry, with little protein content. While it can grow mould over time, caused by spoilage bacteria, it lacks the moisture and nutirients required for the rapid growth of the dangerous pathogenic bacteria that cause food poisoning.
Look out for these common high-risk items in your kitchen (this list is not exhaustive - these are just examples of these types of foods):
Raw foods are particularly notorious for spreading bacteria through cross-contamination. Raw poultry is a major source of Campylobacter, and raw eggs can carry Salmonella.
While raw meats are cooked to kill bacteria, the danger arises when they come into contact with other surfaces. If high-risk, ready-to-eat foods (like a ham sandwich) touch a surface previously used for raw chicken, the bacteria transfer to the ham and multiply. Because the ham will not be cooked again, the bacteria remain active and dangerous.
To keep high-risk foods safe, you must control their environment strictly.
All high-risk foods must be kept in the refrigerator (or freezer). However, the specific location depends on whether the food is raw or ready to eat:
In the UK, FSA / FSS regulations are very specific about temperature control, to prevent food spending time in the Danger Zone (5∘C to 63∘C), where bacteria multiply fastest.
Under food hygiene regulations, the maximum legal temperature for storing high-risk cold foods in the UK is 8∘C. However, for best practice and a margin of safety, most food safety experts recommend keeping your refrigerator set between 1∘C and 5∘C.
Understanding how to identify and work with high-risk foods is a key element of good food hygiene. This article gives us an insight into the world of pathogens and contamination - and also best practice and how to produce foods safely. To gain a broader understanding of food safety and how to practice it in your home or business, why not study our short, accessible Level 2 Food Hygiene course, leading to an accredited certificate?
Food safety culture – it’s the current buzz term creeping into every conversation about hygiene and compliance. It's a crucial part of your EHO inspection, as the Confidence in Management section scrutinises how effectively leaders drive safety practices through their teams.
But without positive action, food safety culture is just a phrase - all mouth and no trousers. It sounds great in a boardroom but adds no real value in a busy kitchen. To move beyond enthusiasm, we must embed micro-habits into the daily routine.
If you’ve risk-assessed, built your HACCP plan, and briefed the team, but find that standards still slip during a busy Friday night, these habit-forming strategies are your missing jigsaw pieces.
Science tells us habits can take anywhere from two to five months to truly lock in. The goal is to shorten that window through relentless repetition. Think back to learning to drive: at first, every gear change was a conscious effort. Now, you do it without thinking.
'Habit stacking' is a psychological method where you pair a new, desired behaviour with an existing, unstoppable one. In a kitchen, certain tasks are inevitable; these are your anchors.
Human beings are inherently lazy - we take the path of least resistance. If the blue roll and sanitiser are at the other end of the kitchen, surfaces won't get wiped as often.
As every parent knows, we can be resistant to instructions unless we understand why we are being given them. A toddler is more likely to put his wellies on if he understands that his feet will get wet and cold without them. In the same way, understanding the consequences of cross contamination, the importance of temperature control or the detail of your allergen policy are absolutely key to a member of your team carrying out safety tasks properly.
We all love a reward. Whether it’s a 'thank you', an 'employee of the month' mention or a bonus, positive reinforcement activates the brain’s reward system.
Can you create a structured and consistent way of rewarding your team for good safety practice? Your reward will be a motivated and competent team who operating safely.
Good safety culture isn’t about mindlessly ticking boxes or saying the right words - it’s about building embedded behaviours that survive the heat and pressure of a dinner rush. Behaviours that happen without failure, even when the manager isn't looking. Get it right, and you can feel confident that an EHO will walk onto your premises and see every member of your team operating safely.
For your team, knowing the 'hows' and 'whys' of food safety is fundamental - that understanding underpins all good habits. Our safety training is built by food professionals, for food professionals. Check out our Food Hygiene, HACCP, and How to Get a 5 Rating courses to give your team the foundation they need.
For any food business, safety is non-negotiable. However, even with the best intentions, unforeseen incidents can occur. This is where the concept of "Due Diligence" becomes the most critical pillar of your food safety management system.
At its core, due diligence is the legal principle of taking all reasonable precautions and exercising all due care to avoid committing an offence. It is about demonstrating that you have proactively identified risks and taken every necessary step to prevent them from happening.
In the context of a food business, due diligence means you can prove you have done everything humanly possible to ensure the food you produce, serve and sell is safe for consumption. It is about moving from "hoping nothing goes wrong" to "having a documented, verifiable system that prevents things from going wrong."
In the UK, the Food Safety Act 1990 is the primary legislation that codifies the due diligence defence. Section 21 of the Act states that it is a defence for a person to prove that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of an offence. This is supported by the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 and equivalent legislation in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which mandate the implementation of a food management system run on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) principles.
Proving due diligence relies entirely on documentation and evidence. To build a robust defence, your business must demonstrate:
A due diligence defence is a legal argument that is used in court if a food business is prosecuted for a food safety breach. If a business can provide sufficient evidence that they followed their own documented procedures, trained their staff, and maintained all safety logs, a judge may find that they acted with due diligence despite the incident.
Essentially, it is your business’s "safety net." By embedding due diligence into your daily culture rather than just viewing it as paperwork, you don't just protect yourself legally; you also protect your customers and the reputation of your brand.
How strong are your defences? If you need help building or reviewing your due diligence documentation, The Safer Food Group is here to help. We specialise in training that makes compliance clear and achievable, including Food Safety and Hygiene, HACCP and How to achieve a 5 rating.
The UK has clear legal standards in place to make sure every workplace takes fire risk seriously. The main law covering this is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It applies to almost all non-domestic settings including offices, shops, factories, schools, warehouses, care homes, and many more. It also applies to gatherings outside of traditional buildings, for example the setting for a festival.
Inspectors from appropriate bodies including the Health and Safety Executive and local fire and rescue services are responsible for enforcing the law, and they have the power to issue improvement notices, close unsafe buildings or events, and prosecute individuals from organisations for serious safety breaches, even when injury has yet to occur.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, fire safety in the workplace becomes the legal duty of a ‘responsible person’. This is usually the employer, owner, landlord, or someone who has control of the premises or setting.
The responsible person must:
This law requires the organisation, through its responsible person, to be proactive in planning for fire and other emergency events. However, everyone has a part to play in making and keeping the workplace safe.
Fire safety is a shared worker responsibility; not just something for management or maintenance teams to worry about. While there is one legally responsible person, it takes a team effort to make sure a workplace stays safe day to day.
It’s important to stress that training plays a crucial role. Fire marshals for example need extra training so they know how to handle real emergencies, but all staff must be aware what to do if the alarm sounds.
Here’s how the responsibilities usually break down:
In an emergency fire situation, people don’t always behave rationally. Reactions can vary including:
Ultimately - we all are. Making sure that everyone is aware of what to do in an emergency, and has the confidence to act appropriately is vital. One of the best ways to improve human reaction during fires is through education. When people understand the dangers of fire spread and the critical importance of seconds, they are far more likely to act quickly, safely, and effectively. When people are familiar with the alarm sound, know their exits, and have practised what to do, their reactions are usually faster, more predictable and safer.
Build confidence to prevent and respond to workplace fire risks with The Safer Food Group's fire safety awareness course. It provides a clear introduction to how fires start and spread, what to do in an emergency and how to keep your workplace safe. Learners explore legal responsibilities under the Fire Safety Order, understand the correct use of fire extinguishers and learn how to respond calmly and effectively during an evacuation.
And while we're talking about fire extinguishers... once your team is trained and understand the different types of extinguisher and when to use them, reinforce and remind them with our free fire extinguisher poster.
On February 3rd 2026, an important milestone was reached in the campaign to instate Benedict's Law, otherwise known as the School Allergy Safety Bill, in UK legislation. We examine the history of the campaign, its aims and achievements to date
The Benedict Blythe Foundation was created following the tragic death of Benedict, who consumed milk, which he was known to be allergic to, at school. Weaknesses within the school's allergy policy are replicated throughout many UK schools, and the foundation has worked relentlessly to improve allergy safety in schools through research, legislative reform, advice and guidance.
The overarching aim of Benedict's Law is to improve safety of school children who have allergies. The percentage of children diagnosed with allergies continues to rise, with approximately 2-5% of UK schoolchildren now believed to have a known food allergy.
The campaign to improve allergy policy within schools preceded Benedict's sad death, but the principles that are being called for remain the same. Campaigners are fighting for:
Petition for Change: The BBF's petition, demanding stronger protections for pupils with allergies, gained over 13,000 signatures in two weeks.
Open Letter to Secretary of State: This was supported by over 40 organisations including medical institutions, charities, unions and industry representatives.
Prime Minister’s Questions: Benedict's story and the call for legislative change was featured in PMQs
Westminster Hall Debate: The campaign was debated in Parliament, with cross-party support,
The School (Allergy Safety) Bill: The formal proposal for legislative change was introduced into Parliament on 9 July 2025
The Schools Allergy Code: Driven by the lack of clear, consistent guidance, the campaign created resources including The Schools Allergy Code.
Amendment to Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill: The introduction of the School (Allergy Safety) Bill was passed on 3rd February 2026.
The amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and School Bill will be formally passed back into the House of Commons for comment before it passes into legislation, but commitment has been made that statutory guidance will be consulted on and introduced within 2026. We will continue to update this post with latest news, as necessary to support schools and colleges to keep children safe.
In response to the Benedict's Law campaign, and to support schools and colleges looking for appropriate training for non-catering staff, The Safer Food Group has developed a brand-new, context specific Level 2 Allergy Awareness (Schools) course. Due for launch early June 2026, the course focuses on the practicalities of a "whole-school approach" to allergy safety, covering:
This training ensures every staff member, regardless of their role, has the vigilance and confidence to keep pupils with allergies safe throughout the school day. It sits alongside The Safer Food Group’s Level 2 Allergy Awareness (Catering) and Level 3 Allergy Supervisor courses, which are suitable for food production teams and their leaders, including those in education settings. To register your interest in this course, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/jo7YdGuNtaq8KYU59
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