Food Safety - Knowledge

A team that is well trained in food safety and hygiene is recognised as one of the key indicators of quality in a UK food business. The benefits of well trained staff speak for themselves - reduced food poisoning and allergy incidents and a greater likelihood of a 5-star rating are the big ones. And these benefits in turn can lead to a better reputation and more customers. But we know that increasing pressures on food businesses mean owners and operators are continually looking for ways to reduce costs - and perhaps free food hygiene training could be a way to do that?

At the time of writing, we could not find any genuinely free Level 2 Food Hygiene certificates online for UK operators. Some training providers give free access to learning material, but then request payment for the resulting certificate. This seems like quite a dishonest offer - once you've committed time to the learning material and passed the course, you are more likely to pay for a certificate, even if the quality of learning content is not up to standard. Having undertaken one of these courses, we can confirm that many vital areas of food safety were missed, including contamination and cross-contamination, allergy awareness, using HACCP and FSMS, safe times and temperatures, premises design, and more. There is often an easy way to spot these courses as they are usually advertised as 'Free Level 2 Food Hygiene course plus certificate'. Always read the details!

We did find some free courses offered by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), including a food allergy and a root cause analysis course. These courses are genuinely free - the food allergy course has some interesting information for food manufacturers, especially those in supervisory roles. Worth a look and no paid for certificate at the end! And some learning providers do provide free courses that supplement their course portfolio and offer extra help to their customers. An example of this is The Safer Food Group's free 5-star rating course which assists a food operator to undertake their own safety audit in preparation for an EHO visit.

And speaking of EHO visits... The FSA do not endorse any one food hygiene course or provider - but you can be fairly sure that your EHO will spot a certificate issued by a less scrupulous provider, and will be keen to test that your team genuinely understand their roles and responsibility when it comes to keeping food safe. So, if you are going to invest staff time in training courses, don't waste it on poor quality versions.

Typically, online Level 2 Food Hygiene training in the UK costs around £10 - £25; a higher price is not necessarily a guarantee of better quality. Good indicators of a quality learning course include:

So perhaps a more sensible question should be: Why would I want a free hygiene certificate?

A good quality, EHO approved Level 2 Food Hygiene training course can be obtained for £12 + VAT from The Safer Food Group, with the prices reducing even further for groups of 5 or more. The training takes approximately 3-4 hours for a new learner (experienced staff are likely to refresh their knowledge slightly quicker). Courses include video, fresh graphics, learner interactions and recap quizzes to allow the learner to test their knowledge. The Safer Food Group only delivers courses for the food industry so you can rely on their experience and expertise to get your team up to speed.

It's a small investment for the reassurance of having a team who understand and employ safe working practices, and the investment is rewarded by minimising the risks of food poisoning and allergy incidences.

With the ever rising costs of energy bills, ingredients and wages, running a profitable food business can seem like an impossible task. Rationalising costs becomes a necessity, and can make good business sense - but don't cut corners when it comes to food safety!

Food Safety is everyone's business

Food safety is everyone's business - creating a culture when every member of your team takes responsibility for creating and delivering safe food to your customers will enhance your reputation, and hopefully your profits. It can be tempting to cut back on team training when times are tough. But training is a vital business requirement, so instead of cutting back, look for options that offer you the best value, without reducing quality and effectiveness.

Online safety training can be both effective and great value - if you find the right provider for you. It's important to think about your team; how they operate, how they learn, what style of training is best for them? Are they mobile phone addicts who love to tap on screens and interact with content? Or are they more traditional learners who would prefer printed words and plenty of time to review and digest material?

The Safer Food Group online training has been designed to suit the needs of many different learners. Our new Level 2 Food Hygiene course is full of engaging graphics and interactive content. It can be studied at the learner's pace, and is accompanied by a course booklet to download and keep, as a helpful reminder of the course. To ensure no-one is excluded, our online safety training also features full accessibility features, to suit students with hearing, visual and learning challenges.

The benefits of great online training

The benefits of great training can be seen when your EHO visits. Feeling confident that any member of your team has the right answers to hand and can demonstrate how they put them into practice is priceless. It demonstrates to the EHO that food safety is an integral part of your business, not just a folder full of forms that is completed the day before inspection.

Knowing that they have the skills and knowledge to get food safety right every time helps reduce your stress about food poisoning or allergy incidents, giving you more time to concentrate on running a great food business - positives all round.

HACCP training is often a requirement of staff in the hospitality, catering and food manufacturing industries. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, and is a method of creating and maintaining a food management system, based on a safety process originally designed by NASA. By using the HACCP process, a kitchen operator is able to identify any risks to food safety that may occur, put in place controls to monitor those risks and corrective actions when they do occur.

According to Article 5 of Regulation (EC) 852/2004, all UK food businesses must create, implement and maintain a food safety management system based on HACCP principles, so it is vital that there is knowledge of how to introduce and maintain a HACCP system in every food business. It is likely that many team members will be involved in some elements of HACCP - for instance, temperature monitoring, cleaning, auditing suppliers or ensuring that allergen systems are in place and adhered to. Therefore, HACCP training is a great investment, and a course that breaks down the process into simple steps, suitable for all levels of employee, is ideal. The Safer Food group HACCP training uses video and written content, alongside engaging graphics and strong accessibility features, to meet the training needs of your whole team, from supervisor to front of house, cleaner to chef.

As with most food safety training, HACCP training is currently advised rather than mandatory; as such there is no specified validity for HACCP certificates. However, in order to keep up with the latest changes in legislation and best practice, it is advised that these type of courses are renewed every three years. To renew your HACCP training with The Safer Food Group, click here and follow the link to our website.

UPFs are Ultra Processed Foods - you may have heard of them, as they've received a lot of press recently, but do you really understand what they are?

Many foods and ingredients we consume are processed to some extent. After all, most people don't use un-milled wheat, unbutchered meat or non-pasteurised milk. We may grow our own vegetables, fruit and herbs, forage the occasional blackberry, or even keep our own bees for honey. But, as most of us buy foods from producers or retailers, the majority of the foods we eat are processed in some way.

But some foods are processed to such a degree that they do not offer the health benefits of others, and can in fact present a risk to health. These are known as UPFs; a loose definition of UPFs is:

'products that typically contain large numbers of ingredients produced commercially, rather than domestically, and involving production methods that are not achievable during home preparation.'*

This is a really helpful definition if you need to make a quick analysis of a food. Let's break it down into three steps:

Other key signs that it might be a UPF are health claims on the packaging (e.g. 'low fat, 'source of protein'), products where the main ingredient has been turned into something very different (e.g. Corn chips), and the use of palm oil.

However, scientific sounding ingredients or unfamiliar processes are not always a red flag - for instance, calcium, iron, thiamine and niacin are micronutrients often added to flour, and using cornflour as a thickening agent is a standard process in a domestic setting. So taking some time to really understand ingredients lists is a great way to know what you're eating.

The NOVA UPF classification system

The NOVA classification system, created by Professor Carlos Monteiro and colleagues, has been designed to help us navigate UPFs. The four levels of processing described by the system are:

1. Unprocessed and minimally processed foods
These are foods that can be eaten or used in a domestic kitchen in their raw states, or after minor processing that doesn't change the food's major composition and properties. These process would include drying, chilling and freezing, crushing and grinding, pasteurisation, non-alcoholic fermentation and packaging. Such foods include raw, frozen and dried vegetables and fruit, fresh meat and fish, grains, legumes and rice, milk, plain yoghurt and raw eggs, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices. Nutritionally, this group of foods is a rich source of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

2. Processed culinary ingredients
These are foods that are often used as added ingredients in recipes used in domestic cooking. They typically originate from ingredients in category 1 but undergo process such as pressing, grinding, milling and refining to enhance certain properties or flavours. As such, these ingredients individually don't offer broad nutritional benefits, and are often used to increase the appeal of category 1 foods (e.g. improving mouth feel, sweetness or acidity).. Examples include plant oils, animal fats, sugar, syrup, honey, salt and vinegar.

3. Processed foods
Typically, these are foods where two or more foods from categories 1 and 2 are combined and further processed, for example cooked, smoked, fermented or packaged, or category 1 foods that have been modified, for instance cheese, ham, tinned vegetables. Examples of category 3 foods are salted crisps, nuts, seeds, freshly made bread (not intensively processed e.g. Chorleywood process), tinned foods, prepared fruits and smoked fish. Nutritionally, some of these foods can retain their benefits, especially minimally processed foods originally from category 1. However, others can be nutritionally unbalanced, especially those with significant levels of added salt, sugar and fats.

4. Ultra-processed foods
Despite this category's title, these foods are not just those that have undergone a number of processes to reach their final form. They can be foods that have been subject to several industrial processes, but this category also encompasses foods that have several ingredients, often including those that are only available in commercial settings, such as hydrolysed proteins, inverted sugars, emulsifiers and gelling agents. As examples - chocolate made on an industrial scale can have few ingredients but will have undergone at least 7 processes, whereas a cheap supermarket sausage ingredients list can look like this:

Some examples of foods which may fit into the UPF category are: fizzy drinks, packaged snacks, sweets, ice cream, cereals, cakes, pastries, fruit flavoured yoghurts, pies and pizzas, nuggets, and burgers - but of course, this depends on the production methods and number of ingredients. Nutritionally, UPFs are often energy dense and lacking in micronutrients.

Why should we avoid them?

We've touched on the nutritional concerns of UPF foods above. Typically, UPFs are high in energy dense macro nutrients (fats and carbohydrates). These easily absorbed calories can encourage overeating, and potentially lead to obesity and related serious health issues.

Some ingredients found in UPFs have been linked to other serious health conditions such as cancers, and consumers of diets high in UPFs can have a greater tendency to suffer from tooth decay, type 2 diabetes, depression and dementia.

Eating a diet that is high in UPFs and therefore lower in whole foods is likely to lead to a lack of key micronutrients essential for good health and a well functioning body. The Safer Food Group's Level 2 Nutritional Awareness course covers micronutrients and their vital role in our diet in more detail.

Is it that simple?

Unfortunately, consumption of UPF foods in the UK is at record levels, and the health of the nation is suffering as a result. UPFs are generally cheaper, more readily available and more convenient than their whole food alternatives, and therefore their prevalence is not surprising.

UPFs are not always easy to identify and are often presented as healthy options. Many mueslis for instance have a number of added industrial ingredients, despite their healthy basis of oats, nuts, seeds and fruits. Multi-seed breads may present some health benefits over their white alternatives, but mass produced versions will still consist of emulsifiers, added enzymes and oxidising agents, and will have undergone a high-speed mixing process to make it cheaper and more consistent to produce. Those looking to reduce meat consumption are often steered towards 'plant-based' foods - but often, the popular alternatives are far more processed than their meats counterparts.

What can food industry professionals do to help the increasing threat of UPFs? Learning about UPFs and their impact on nutrition is a great start; The Safer Food Group's Level 2 course is a solid starting place which explains how foods are composed and the impact of various macro and micronutrients on our health.
Those in menu planning roles can ensure that meals are based wherever possible on whole, minimally processed foods, and those with caring and teaching responsibilities can pass on basic knowledge about UPFs, and hopefully increase awareness to help to reverse the UPF trend.

And ultimately, like most things nutrition, it's all about balance. A diet that is largely based on whole foods, plenty of plants, a good balance of macro-nutrients and lots of variety can usually handle the odd packaged snack or pizza.

When deciding where to eat consumers consider many things, but perhaps the most important thing they will consider is your business’s food hygiene rating. The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is run in conjunction with local authorities and will rate a business’s hygiene standards between 1 and 5 stars. During an assessment, you will be scored on three areas of hygiene: premises, food handling processes, and confidence in management. In order to achieve a 5 star food hygiene rating, you must score highly in all three areas. The following guide will walk you through what the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) will be looking to see in each of these areas, and how to attain the maximum score in all criteria so that you can earn a 5 star food hygiene rating for your business.

All three categories are scored via the imposition of intervention points. You are aiming to receive 0 intervention points in all 3 categories. The possible intervention points range from 0 to 25 in multiples of 5, and scores will be assigned based upon severity of faults as well as volume. To achieve a 5 star food hygiene rating, your total number of intervention points across the 3 categories cannot be greater than 15, and no specific category can incur more than 5 points. This means that, whilst there is a margin for error, it is a narrow one. As such, you cannot rely on this buffer to help you to achieve your 5 star food hygiene rating; you must aim for perfection.

Premises

First impressions are vital when it comes to your premises. The assessment begins as soon as the EHO arrives, and as a result, the hygiene standard of the premises can really set the tone for the whole inspection. To start, it is vital to ensure that the premises are fit for purpose. There should be dedicated handwashing facilities, a mains water connection and hot water access, drainage, and lights to spot hazards. The kitchen’s construction and surfaces should be adequately suitable for food preparation. Physical separation should exist to limit the risk of cross-contamination, ideally allowing the journey from preparation to service to flow logically. Equipment must be in working condition, operated as per the manufacturer’s instruction, and moveable in order to be cleaned and inspected. Lack of necessary equipment can be in and of itself the difference between a 5 star and a 4 star rating, even if replacements are on their way; regular maintenance and replacement in good time can combat this.

As with much of ensuring hygiene throughout, much of this section comes down to processes. Whilst the absence of pests is clearly important, it is a legal requirement to have systems in place to prevent access to pests and control any who may get in. Similarly, a waste system should be in place, with regularly cleaned and emptied bins with lids, adequate storage in a hygienic area, and a provision for the removal of waste. Finally, there need to be systems in place, such as a rota, for the regular cleaning and disinfecting of your premises, ensuring that the right chemicals are used safely to maintain good hygiene throughout. With adequate, evidenced systems in place, receiving no intervention points for your premises should be comfortably attainable.

Food handling process

The range of food you serve, the methods used for storing, preparing and serving it, and the prevention of food hazards are vital pieces in succeeding in this category. This section is primarily focused on ensuring you do not serve contaminated food, due to the risks it could pose to the customer. Food contamination comes in 4 different forms - bacterial hazards, physical hazards, chemical hazards, and allergenic ingredients - with the avoidance of contamination from all of these being crucial. In order to do so, you must take steps when storing and preparing the food, and have systems in place to ensure this too. When storing food, chilled and frozen food must be kept at the FSA recommended temperatures, and fridges and freezers regularly checked to ensure they are at the right levels. High-risk, raw, and ready-to-eat foods should be separated to avoid cross-contamination. Fresh ingredients should be labelled to indicate age, checked before use to ensure freshness, and all ingredients should be thrown out when reaching their best before or use-by dates. When preparing food, there should be a continued separation of high-risk, raw, and ready-to-eat foods, often signified by chopping board colours. There is no existing set colour scheme for chopping boards (for example, meat does not have to be red), but having a set scheme that all your staff know and follow is a straightforward way to demonstrate your effort to limit cross-contamination. If possible, it would be sensible to divide your food areas between dirty tasks, such as washing up, and clean tasks, such as plating up, to further reduce the risk of cross=contamination

In the previous category, the results largely depend on your actions, setting up your premises correctly and ensuring systems are in place to maintain these. This section, however, relies on any staff you employ to maintain good practices too. The EHO is entitled to, and will, ask your staff about their knowledge of the food safety aspects of their roles. It is your responsibility to ensure that they understand what is required of them from a food safety standpoint, the processes in place to prevent contamination of food, and why those processes exist. Perhaps the most important of these areas is handwashing; if hand hygiene standards are not being met, you are likely to receive at least 10 intervention points, automatically preventing you from being able to achieve a 5 star food hygiene rating. As a result, it is important to ensure all staff who handle food know how to adequately wash their hands, and that this is something they actually do, particularly following situations that could lead to contamination.

Confidence in management

Confidence in management is the broadest of categories and overlaps somewhat with some of the tasks which are already covered by the first two categories. It is effectively a category which addresses the food hygiene culture which you have created. The EHO knows that a visit is just a snapshot of the day-to-day business, and thus will want to ensure that the processes they see demonstrated are always being followed. Every business is required by law to have and use its own Food Safety Management System. This is a system based upon the principles of HACCP, specifically tailored to the unique nature of your business, with acknowledgements of the types of food you prepare, the space you prepare it in, and any other specific challenges you may face. The evidence that the systems mentioned in the previous sections are being followed correctly will also be checked by your EHO, and absence of such evidence can constitute a significant issue.

The final element of confidence in management, and indeed in achieving a 5 star food hygiene rating, is how well the culture of food hygiene is maintained. All staff handling food should be trained in food hygiene, with evidence supplied to show this. Supervisors should be particularly knowledgeable, so as to ensure standards are maintained and processes are followed by all staff. Staff should be provided with suitable PPE for any task that may require it, and a uniform policy should be in place to limit the risks of cross-contamination. Visual cues, whilst not necessary, can also contribute to an overall sense of attentiveness to food hygiene. Finally, staff should be given sufficient time to complete any set task. Rushed tasks can lead to cut corners, which reduces the efficacy of the task, limiting its usefulness.

Ultimately, as the EHO can come for an inspection at any time, with no warning, you should be doing everything possible to ensure that regardless of when an inspection takes place, you are prepared, you have effective systems in place to maintain hygiene standards, and that these systems are being followed by all staff, who know their roles and responsibilities. Despite how it may feel, the EHO is not seeking to fail you; as long as you are taking every precaution to maintain hygiene, you stand in good stead to achieve your 5 star food hygiene rating.

What to watch out for when working with starchy foods

Acrylamide is a chemical that forms during a reaction between sugars and amino acids in starchy food, particularly when that food is cooked at high temperatures. Based on scientific studies, it is believed to be carcinogenic – that means, cancer forming – and therefore we should all be aware of its presence and understand what we can do to minimise its production when we cook.

Food handlers and food businesses have a legal responsibility to ensure that the food they produce is safe to eat. Therefore, all food businesses should be aware of and take steps to minimise the production of acrylamide when purchasing, storing, preparing and cooking food, and food handlers should follow any plans that are put in place. The responsibility of food handlers and producers to minimise acrylamide levels is specifically addressed in EU Regulation 2017/2158.

What foods may contain acrylamide?

What steps should I take to keep food safe in my business?

What are safe production methods to reduce production of acrylamide?

The most obvious indicator that a food has been cooked at too high a temperature is its colour – make sure fried, toasted or baked products reach a golden yellow, or lighter colour. Other quick tips include:

However, there are many more steps within the purchasing, storage, preparation and cooking processes that you need to follow to stay safe – we recommend you refer to Safer Food, Better Business or your relevant industry guides for more detailed information.

What is glycerol?

Glycerol is an ingredient that is added to some food and drink, to keep products moist, preserve them, to change their texture or to sweeten them. Glycerin (or glycerine) is a very closely related ingredient.

It is also widely used in pharmaceuticals – for instance in cough syrups and topical treatments such as wound and burn creams.

Following a number of cases of glycerol intoxication in children, the FSA have issued guidelines to food manufacturers and retailers regarding levels of glycerol in food and drink and how to serve specific products.

What foods and drinks contain glycerol?

Because it is used to sweeten and to moisten, glycerol is found in a small quantities in many processed foods. Check your packet of tortilla wraps, chewing gum, cake icing or cereal bars – you can expect to find glycerol towards the bottom of the ingredients list, showing that a small amount of it has been used in that product.

The FSA has released guidelines that relate specifically to slushy drinks, because of the levels of glycerol in some of these products and the way they are sometimes consumed. In some slushie drinks, glycerol is used both to create the slushy texture and to sweeten the drink, so can appear in relatively high levels compared to other foods and drinks. It can sometimes be sold as a ‘bottomless’ drink, particularly in family orientated venues, leading to high levels of consumption over short time periods.

What age groups does glycerol pose a risk to and why?

Glycerol intoxication can happen in children aged about ten and under, causing them to develop headaches, sickness, and in extreme cases, shock, hypoglycaemia and loss of consciousness. This is because their smaller bodies cannot break glycerol down as efficiently as an adult or older child.

Because some slushy drinks contain particularly high levels of glycerol, the FSA recommends that children under 10 only consume limited amounts and are not offered free refills by retailers.

“The FSA’s risk assessment considered a worst-case exposure scenario in which a child consumed a 350 ml slush drink containing the highest level of glycerol used (50,000 mg/L) and compared this to a threshold above which adverse effects could occur. Children aged 4 or below would exceed this threshold.

Their recommendations are that slushy drinks are therefore avoided for this age group.

What should food businesses do to prevent harm?

The FSA have made four recommendations to food businesses regarding slushy drinks:

Future guidelines on the use of glycerol may be altered accordingly if levels of the ingredient are found to have reduced significantly at future investigations by the FSA.

What help is available for parents and other consumers?

As well as the guidelines issued to food businesses, the FSA have updated their Food Additives page for consumers to include specific advice regarding glycerol. It states:

“Slush ice drinks can contain the ingredient glycerol as a substitute for sugar, at a level required to create the ‘slush’ effect. At this level, we recommend that children aged four years and under should not consume these drinks.

This is due to their potential to cause side-effects such as headaches and sickness, particularly when consumed in excess.”

About us

The Safer Food Group offer food safety training for food businesses in the UK. As food safety experts, we seek to inform our customers of the latest news, advice and guidance within the industry and help them understand the implications for their operations. For more information about The Safer Food Group training, please visit www.thesaferfoodgroup.com

Is your food business ready for October 2023?

Following the success of the plastic bag charge, the Government is set to introduce a ban on the sale and use of many single use plastic items from October 2023. According to figures released by Defra at the end of July 2023, the use of single-use supermarket plastic bags has fallen 98% since retailers in England began charging for them in 2015.

How will food businesses be affected by the single use plastics ban? And what items will be included in the new legislation?

The October 2023 ban will include many single-use plastic and polystyrene items, including: cutlery, balloon sticks and some plates, trays, bowls, polystyrene cups and food containers. From the introduction of the ban, food businesses in England including retailers, takeaways, food vendors and hospitality outlets will not be able to offer these products to their customers. This brings businesses in England in line with those in Scotland and Wales, who have complied with similar laws since 2022.

Plastic stirrers and straws are already restricted, following laws introduced in 2020.

What plastic products will not be covered by this ban?

A temporary exemption will apply to plates, trays and bowls that are considered to be packaging and cannot be replaced with a non plastic alternative – for instance, pre-packaged salad bowls, soups, desserts, or bowls or trays that are filled with food at the counter of a takeaway. Polystyrene cups for food that will be heated after purchase will also be exempt. These products will all be subject to different legislation at a later date, as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme (details to follow when available).

Can I replace my plastic items with biodegradable plastic?

No – the legislation applies to all types of single use plastic, even biodegradable or compostable versions.

I have loads of plastic cutlery in stock, can I use them after September 2023?

No – after the legislation comes into force, you will not be able to use any banned plastic products, even if you have already purchased them. So, before the ban comes into effect, you’ll need to think about all the products you need to use up and research the alternatives to replace them. Don’t forget to consider the difference in cost of these alternatives, and potential supply issues, especially as many businesses will be switching at a similar time. Alternative solutions you may consider include:

using biodegradable alternatives (e.g. bamboo or cardboard)
encouraging customers to bring their own reusable containers and cutlery, perhaps by offering an incentive or discount.

As we’ve already discussed, alternatives to single-use plastic may be more expensive and you may need to pass these costs onto your customer. If this is the case, make sure you communicate with your customers in advance. Highlighting the environmental benefits of your new packaging can be a great way to get them on board, and it’s very likely that they will see similar changes in competitors and other food businesses.

What are the implications of the ban on food safety?

One concern for food safety experts is the potential use of customers’ own containers for takeaway and retail food. Where does the responsibility for food safety sit with food that is produced, then placed into a container that is potentially contaminated, damaged or unsuitable for the food that is placed with it?

Although use of customers’ own containers is currently being mooted as a potential method, unless the cleanliness of these containers can be guaranteed, it is unlikely that many food business owner will feel happy to sell food in this way. We could see the development of quick, efficient sanitisation methods that facilitate this – perhaps UV sterilisation? A better alternative might be investment into deposit and return schemes, which enable regular customers to pay a deposit for containers, then return them to the business for thorough cleansing and later reuse. Perhaps a universal container deposit scheme may emerge as a result of the single use plastic ban?

Ideas for alternatives to single use plastic are suggested by environmental campaigners, Rewrap https://www.refill.org.uk/alternatives-to-single-use-plastic/

This information post has been compiled by The Safer Food Group, leading training provider to the food industry. For more information about our courses, please visit www.thesaferfoodgroup.com or email info@thesaferfoodgroup.com

As anyone in a food industry role knows, cleaning is the most powerful tool in the fight against cross contamination. Cleaning is not just about keeping up appearances – efficient and effective cleaning eliminates breeding spaces for harmful bacteria. In its absence, pathogens multiply to dangerous levels, can spread widely within their environment and create a very real risk of food poisoning.

What are the principles of good cleaning practice?

As they are the cornerstone to kitchen hygiene, it is worthwhile taking the time to recap the principles of good cleaning practice.

When cleaning work surfaces and equipment, two cleaning chemicals are required. Detergents (or degreasers) are used first to remove waste and grease. Disinfectant is then employed to kill pathogens. Some cleaning products combine both detergents AND disinfectant – but in all cases, the manufacturer’s instructions must be followed. These include ‘contact time’ – the time the product must be left on the surface before wiping – and dilution. This is important not only to ensure efficacy of the product, but also to provide some residual protection against bacteria after the product has been used.

In the UK, cleaning products meeting the BS EN standards (BS EN 1276 or BS EN 13697) are suitable for use in commercial kitchens.

How do Cleaning schedules support good hygiene?

Cleaning schedules are a crucial part of any food business’ HACCP plan, and, if created using a comprehensive risk assessment approach, form a suitable framework to ensure both front of house and food service personnel perform required cleaning tasks regularly. Cleaning schedules often form a visible indicator of hygiene standards to customers, when displayed in public areas that need very regular cleaning, such as bathrooms.

Some larger companies are now turning to tech solutions for completing cleaning schedules, alongside other HACCP paperwork. Online FSMS solutions are currently early in their development, but no doubt will develop over the next few years to provide a streamlined alternative to paper-based records.

Where does cleaning go wrong?

So where are our cleaning ‘blind spots’? According to our consultant EHO, a number of areas are often overlooked when it comes to cleaning, including:

Manual Tin Openers – often used and then thrown straight back in a drawer, tin openers can harbour moisture and protein, and make and ideal breeding ground for bacteria.

Wire Safety guards on food mixers – whilst bowls and whisks are removed and cleaned, the equipment itself is often neglected, and food residue left behind.

Vacuum pack machines and wet bains-marie – the liquid left in the bottom of these machines is sometimes left at the end of service; the warm, contaminated water forms an effective bacteria soup.

Handwash basins – these are often neglected. By nature of their use, handbasins present a high risk of cross contamination, and should be treated as a common touch point for cleaning purposes.

Deep cleans – this is one of the jobs that is often neglected. Cleaning underneath cupboards, behind equipment and inside cupboards should take place weekly in a busy commercial kitchen.

How did the pandemic affect cleaning practice?

One positive outcome from the pandemic period has been an increased awareness of the importance of good cleaning practices, both front of house and in the kitchen. Whilst levels of cleaning activity have generally reduced since the height of the pandemic, businesses with a good safety culture, managers who lead by example and participate in comprehensive food safety training programmes are typically demonstrating better cleaning practice than in pre-pandemic times.

Good hand hygiene unsurprisingly increased in both staff and customers during the peak pandemic period. According to reports by the FSA (Consumer Handwasher Tracker, The Food Standards Agency, August 2022), handwashing has slipped somewhat from the public’s priorities, but still remains higher than reported pre-pandemic behaviour.

The early stages of the covid-19 pandemic saw a period of uncertainty, where information about preventing the spread of the covid virus was scarce and often conflicting. This period saw a rise in use of chlorine-based products, including bleach, as disinfectants – partly due to misinformation, but also in response to supply issues. Unfortunately, this practice has remained in some commercial and domestic kitchens. Bleach (and other chlorine based products) are corrosive, potentially harmful to health and dangerous when used in combination with other chemicals – and as such should not be used as a disinfectant in food production environments.

Are ‘gentle’ cleaning products effective?

Environmental concerns have led to an increase in development of ‘eco’ cleaning products, and a wide range of these products are now available for domestic use. For commercial kitchens, there are now a small number of environmentally responsible cleaning products available from wholesalers, including the ChemEco range, that meet the necessary BS EN standards.

As with any chemical product, cleaning products should never be mixed with other chemicals, should remain in original packaging where possible, and if diluted and decanted, users must have access to the manufacturer’s instructions.

What new cleaning technology is on the horizon?

Surprisingly, the pandemic has not left a raft of new, improved cleaning tech in its wake. However, one key move in the market – the restriction of single use plastics due to come into force in October 2023 – may have a positive influence. Retailers are being encouraged to accept customers’ containers for take-away foods; however, this presents an obvious cross contamination risk. Could we see a development in UV technology that provides a quick, effective method of sanitising take-away tubs for reuse?

Disinfectants are used to destroy pathogens (bacteria and viruses). In order to work effectively, they need time to break down cell walls and interfere with the pathogens’ operating systems. For this reason, disinfectants used in commercial kitchens include instructions about CONTACT TIME – that is the time you need to leave the product to work before wiping clean.

If you didn’t know this, you’re not alone – in a group we recently surveyed, no-one knew about contact time. But it’s really important to read the label and follow the instructions to make sure you’re cleaning effectively. To learn more about keeping your kitchen in tip-top condition, have a look at our Level 2 Food Hygiene Course