Following a government consultation, the Early Years sector is awaiting final details of the latest Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) safeguarding reforms, due for implementation in September 2025. While the detailed framework has not yet been published, we know that a new 'Safer Eating' section will be included.
The EYFS is a statutory framework that sets standards of care, learning and development for early years (0-5 years) settings in the UK. These include pre-schools, private nurseries and childminders.
The 2025 reforms will feature a new Safer Eating section, within Food and Drink Facilities. The measures included in this section are likely to include:
For the full wording, see p.27 of Early Years Foundation Stage safeguarding reforms - consultation response
As an early years practitioner, manager, setting owner or childminder, make yourself familiar with the 2025 reforms as they are published, in readiness for any changes you need to make. Changes needed in your setting may include:
We will be updating this post with further details as they are available; you may want to bookmark this page. Alternatively complete our EYFS Safer Eating form, and we will email you with updates.
As ever, the EYFS (2025) will emphasise the importance of health, safety and wellbeing training for all early years practitioners. The Safer Food Group works with experts including the Early Years Alliance to create health and safety training specifically for EY settings. These include Level 2 Food Hygiene (Early Years), Level 2 Allergy Awareness (Early Years), and Level 2 Health and Safety (Early Years). Our courses map to key EYFS guidelines
Food hygiene is a set of processes that a food business can incorporate into their operations in order to ensure the food that prepare, serve and sell is safe for their customers to eat. It is an important part of food safety, which starts right at the beginning of the food supply chain. Food hygiene training is an important part of creating a good food safety culture in any food business. The quality of a team's food hygiene training is an important measure for EHO checks; see further info on the Food Standards Agency website.
Food hygiene training (sometimes referred to as food safety training) is the process that teaches food handlers how to produce safe food. Good food hygiene training covers the following topics:
Reputable food hygiene training courses will offer a food hygiene certificate on successful completion of the course and exam. Beware food training courses that appear to be free - they often spring unexpected and inflated charges on you to secure the certificate after you've finished the course!
Whether you are an established cook or looking for your first role in catering, a food hygiene certificate is an important part of your toolkit. We look at the top 5 reasons for passing your food safety course before you apply for that dream job.
This one should go without saying. The fundamental reason for taking a Level 2 Food hygiene course is to learn the principles of preparing safe food – it’s that simple! Understanding food safety challenges such as cross-contamination and knowing the difference between a Best-Before and a Use-By date are really important skills in a kitchen. Having an up-to-date certificate to show you have already mastered these skills gives an employer confidence before you even arrive for an interview and helps you hit the ground running.
This one is especially important when you are starting out in the food industry, perhaps looking for your very first food industry job. A food hygiene certificate demonstrates that you are genuinely interested enough in the sector to invest in your own training. For an entry level job, you won’t need to break the bank – Level 2 Food Safety (previously known as Basic Food Hygiene) is usually sufficient, and you can buy a single online course for £12+ VAT. BUT – there are lots of courses out there, and they vary in quality – make sure you look for a course that is accredited by a reputable body, such as Qualifi or CPD
Roles in catering and hospitality are generally busy and at some point you may be working without supervision. You need to be able to make the right decisions when working alone, and taking food related training courses, such as Food Safety, HACCP and Allergy Awareness, will help you to do that.
This is the scary one. As a food handler, you have a legal responsibility to do everything you reasonably can to make sure the food you serve is safe to eat. A good food hygiene course will explain your legal responsibilities and those of your employers and supervisors.
The food industry is becoming increasingly focussed on the environmental impact of food waste. Having a good understanding of food safety practices – especially fridge and freezer temperatures, food labelling and hot-holding, cooling and reheating methods – will enable you to do your bit in the war on waste. And for your employer, that means cost savings too – a big win-win!
Food Safety courses are readily available online, and can generally be taken in your own time, at your own pace. Good training providers will allow you to sample course content before you buy to check it is right for you – so perhaps a better question would be: ‘Why wouldn’t I need a Food Hygiene certificate?’
It is important to serve safe, hygienic food to everyone – but in schools and education settings, it is especially important to ensure young bodies and brains are protected and nourished, and immune and digestive systems can develop safely. Having an awareness of food borne illness and how to prevent it is important for anyone who works in early years.
This depends on your role – if preparing and serving food is a small part of your role, and someone else is instructing or supervising you, a Level 2 Food Hygiene award should be adequate. If you are running the kitchen, putting processes and plans in place, and supervising others, you might want to look at a Level 3 Food Hygiene award, that gives you some insight into management level skills and a greater background knowledge of food safety.
If you already work in a school or college, your employer may have a preferred training provider for food hygiene. If you’re looking for a course yourself, you can choose to study a face to face or an online course. Think about what is important to you before you decide – cost, convenience, being able to recap material and study at your pace, or being able to ask questions?
Look for a course that is designed for early years practitioners, especially at Level 2. Courses such as those offered by The Safer Food Group cover specific situations and details that will be relevant in your role.
Also, consider whether you’ll need any additional training – do you need to learn about Allergen Management, or Nutrition for your setting, for instance? If so, look for a training provider who can cover all of these subjects – you’ll have all your training details held in one place, and you’ll build up a comfortable familiarity with the way the courses work.
Have a look at our free guide – it covers menu planning, food safety, hygiene and allergens, and provides links to some great free resources for early years cooks.
Click here to access our free resource for school caterers
Increasing recent investment in and focus on textured modified foods have led to significant improvement in the meals offered to patients with dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) in health and care settings. These include the development and implementation of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation System (IDSSI) - a framework that offers clear descriptors of varying levels of food modification, helping healthcare providers and caterers communicate clearly and meet the needs of their patients.
By its nature, textured modified food is often offered to some of the most vulnerable patients - so food safety has to be a key priority in its preparation. We look at some of the key challenges raised when preparing these foods.
Pathogenic bacteria need food, moisture and warmth to thrive; the ideal temperature range for most pathogens is between 8°C and 63°C. In any food service, good food safety includes keeping food either above or below the Danger Zone as far as possible, and handling quickly and efficiently during preparation. The extra processes involved in textured modified food means it can spend longer in the Danger Zone, so it is important that food handling staff:
Ensuring that the times and temperatures advised by the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) or Foods Standards Scotland (FSS) are always met is a key factor in minimising the presence of pathogens.
Standard FSA advice (use in England, Wales and NI) is to cook food until it has reached a core temperature of 70°C for 2 minutes.
The other time and temperature combinations are:
Hot food when held must be kept at 63°C or above. You can keep it below 63°C for up to two hours. If it has not been used within two hours, you should either:
The FSS advice (use in Scotland) is:
Reheating food more than once increases the likely presence of pathogens. It can be tempting to re-chill uneaten food, especially modified food that has involved extra care and attention, but the risk is too great. Use careful portion control to suit the people you are catering for - this has the added benefit that a smaller portion can be more appealing to someone who has dysphagia.
EHOs report that bulky kitchen equipment, such as bains-marie, food processors and industrial tin openers are commonly the most neglected items in the kitchen cleaning schedule. Warm, soft, moist, protein rich food that has lodged in hard to reach places can be especially hard to clean, but is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The extensive use of these types of equipment in food modification puts these foods at greater risk of contamination so ensure every piece of equipment in your kitchen is included in your HACCP cleaning schedule and the standards of cleaning are checked regularly.
None of the above food safety practices are unique to the preparation of texture modified foods, but they are areas that may require extra focus in this type of preparation. Always ensure that all food handler staff in health and care settings are suitably trained and / or supervised for their roles. The Safer Food Group offers a range of food safety training for food industry workers: www.thesaferfoodgroup.com.
This article was written in conjunction with Andy Cullum, the iddsi guy, who offers comprehensive training in dysphagia modification of food and drink.
High quality care comes in many forms. When dealing with vulnerable people in a care setting, listening skills, patience and empathy often come to the fore, but knowledge and application of high food standards are equally important. Poor food safety standards can add to or even create serious health conditions, whereas good quality food is an important part of life for many older or vulnerable people, both from a physical and mental health perspective.
A good knowledge of food safety is also important in a supported living setting. Helping residents understand and apply these principles is vital; especially so when facing challenges such as poor eyesight, sense of smell, lack of previous cooking experience or learning difficulties. Being able to understand, apply and convey food safety information to others is a crucial skill for many carers.
In brief, good food safety is centred on preventing contaminants from entering food, from spreading from one food to another and from multiplying. This reduces risk of harm from pathogenic bacteria, physical and chemical contaminants, and allergens.
Positive actions that uphold food safety include:
Consider a training program that is suited to your set up. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), food handlers must be 'supervised, instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activities', so in a typical care setting, Level 2 Food Hygiene training will be adequate for most team member, with Level 3 training appropriate for supervisors or those looking to expand their role. Food hygiene training may also be useful for residents in a supported living setting. Look for a course that is accessible, engaging and can be studied at an appropriate pace, or alongside a support worker.
Food safety compliance within the care sector is monitored both by the CQC and the FSA.
Safety is one of the fundamental standards by which the CQC assesses care settings, and as such, condition of catering facilities are subject to inspection.
As part of their inspection, the CQC inspector will check whether food preparation and storage is safe and sanitary, and whether the site employs a food safety management system (e.g. HACCP).
Care homes are also subject to the standard legislation under which all food businesses operate. As such, they will be subject to the regular inspections carried out by their local authority. FSA (or FSS in Scotland) ratings are awarded based on these inspections, which examine a site's premises, food handling processes and confidence in their food safety management and culture. For more information about the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, follow this link to The Safer Food Group's free course.
The Safer Food Group offers straight forward, easy to follow training courses for everyone wanting to expand their food safety knowledge, including food professionals. Our recently updated Level 2 Food Hygiene course has full accessibility features, engaging interactions, and allows the learner to study at a pace that suits them. Our video clips offer a human introduction into our written course material, which is accompanied by a downloadable course booklet, that can be kept for future reference.
For more information visit our website, drop us a line at info@thesaferfoodgroup.com or call 0800 612 6784.
Click here to download an example Scout Group Allergen Statement.
Are you using your food operation to provide new skills and experience to members of your community? The Safer Food Group has created a Skills and Competency framework for kitchen assistants; this framework suggests a list of useful food preparation skills to be covered, and once completed forms a record of evidence for the trainee to take away.
Download the framework.
Every food business in the UK has a legal responsibility to:
A very important part of fulfilling this legal duty is creating a Food Safety Management system, using the principles of Hazard analysis and Critical control points (HACCP). HACCP is a system that helps you identify potential food hazards and introduce procedures to make sure those hazards are removed or reduced to an acceptable level.
These procedures will help you produce and sell food that is safe to eat, providing you:
To create a comprehensive food safety management system, you will need to consider the entire journey of the food you produce, starting with the source of your ingredients and covering areas such as food handling, storage, cooking, cleaning and food safety staff training.
A great resource to help you with this is the Safer Food, Better Business resource provided by the Food Standards Agency. This book walks you through each area of your business and tells you what you need to look out for, what records you need to keep, and how often you need to review your processes.
Safer Food, Better Business highlights the importance of good record keeping when producing food that is safe to eat. Good records will instil a culture of diligence within your food business and will also help prove to an EHO that you are doing things right.
The key records that most food businesses will need to keep are:
For more information, The Safer Food Group offer a Level 2 HACCP awareness course that looks into each area of Food Management in closer detail, explaining how to get it right – and what can happen when you don’t!
Starting a food business can leave you in a tangle of red tape, unless you know where to start. We’ve outlined the process below and highlighted some things to consider, as well as signposting useful links for the new food business owner.
First things first: Food Business registration
If you are not already registered as a food business, or you are taking over an existing food business from someone else, you must register online with your local authority, before you start trading. It is against the law to trade as a food business without registration – but making yourself known to your local authority gives you access to your local food safety team (including EHOs) who can be a valuable source of support and information when you are setting up.
Food business registration is required by any business which
You will also need to go through the legal process for setting up any kind of business, if you haven’t already done so. Check out the UK Government website, Business Wales, or NI Business Info for details of how to do this. The UK.Gov page also gives details of permits and licences required for mobile food businesses or street trading.
Premises and Facilities
You will need to demonstrate that you have suitable premises and facilities to be able to prepare food safely, including the following:
Premises must be clean, in good repair, and suitable for safe food preparation – for example, secure from pests. Provision must be made for waste disposal that does not encourage pests.
The physical space must be suitable for food preparation, including walls, ceilings and surfaces that are easy to keep clean, without peeling paint or other potential contaminants. Light and ventilation must be adequate.
You must have adequate, separate provision for handwashing, including hot water, and suitable areas for changing into clean work clothes. There must also be adequate facilities for equipment, crockery and cutlery washing and disinfection, and equipment must be in good working order.
For a more complete list of the expectations for premises and facilities, check the FSA’s Setting up a Food Business page
Food Safety
One of a food business operator’s fundamental legal responsibilties is to ensure that their food is safe to eat. Food safety encompasses a range of measures, including:
Creating and using a Food Safety Management, or HACCP, plan. This is a written plan that is used to risk assess, manage and record food preparation processes, from cleaning schedules and supplier records to temperature monitoring and stock rotation.
Being aware of the risks and laws surrounding Food Allergens, and ensuring customers can consume your food without risk of harm from allergenic ingredients.
Managing suppliers, ensuring that they are committed to providing you with food that is safe to eat and ensuring that all of your ingredients can be traced back to their original source.
Ensuring that you and your staff are adequately trained and / or supervised, understand all elements of good food hygiene practice, including how to deal with allergens, and can undertake all necessary tasks in a way which eliminates the risks of unsafe food. Make sure that any training that you undertake is designed for the correct level and staff role – for example, Level 2 Food Hygiene and Allergen training for all food handlers, or those running a very simple food operation, and Level 3 Food Hygiene for those in a managerial or supervisory role. A reputable training provider will be able to supply you with a syllabus and sample of learning material, so you can check it is right for your needs.
Click here for the FSA’s comprehensive list of your food safety responsibilities
The list above may seem daunting, but one really key point to remember, is that there are many resources available to help you. If you have any doubts about setting up and running your food business, seek out advice from your local authority food safety team, and your Environmental Health Officer. They will help you to operate safely, legally and, if you get things right, will be able to award you that all important 5 star rating – good luck!
Otherwise known as The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (or Food Hygiene Information Scheme in Scotland), scores on the doors are the green stickers you see in the windows and doors of many food establishments throughout the UK.
Similar schemes trialled in countries including the USA, Canada, Denmark and Singapore had shown that a rating scheme that was visible to and accessible by customers significantly improved the hygiene standards of food establishments. Initial work began in the UK in 2005, leading to the eventual roll out by the Food Standards agency (FSA) of the 5 star rating system that still exists today (Pass / Improvement required / Exempt in Scotland).
Inspections are carried out by local authority Environmental Health teams, ideally every two years for food businesses with good hygiene standards and well trained food handler staff, or more regularly for those businesses that are struggling to achieve those standards. EHOs are trained to measure businesses against a set of criteria, including:
The Food Standards Agency encourage food businesses to display their rating stickers – in fact, in Wales and Northern Ireland it is mandatory for food hygiene rating stickers to be displayed. You might wonder why a business would not want to display a rating sticker – do they have something to hide? The latest ratings for food businesses are also available online, via the FSA website; this is also the place to find out how to report a food business if you have concerns about their safety standards.
If you are unsure about anything, talk to your local authority’s environmental health team. They are there to advise and would rather you asked a question and kept your customers safe than you make a dangerous, possibly even fatal, mistake
The Safer Food Group
Unit 2, Integrity House,
Lower Lumsdale, Matlock
DE4 5EX
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