Food hygiene

To say this is a subject which is taken more seriously than it used to be is something of an understatement. Even people with no particular interest in food will be only too familiar with BSE (‘mad cow disease’), E Coli, salmonella and listeria. The last few years have been traumatic for the food and catering industries.

One of the consequences has been that rules and regulations on food hygiene are now enforced more strictly than in the past. This became particularly apparent in the late Nineties. Sandwich-coffee bars and other food outlets suddenly started receiving more visits from environmental health officers on a mission. It was clear that they were under orders to be far more proactive in getting people to observe the rules. This remains the position. Anyone wanting to open any kind of food outlet must realise that food hygiene is a matter of prime importance.

Want some more good news? The people who police the laws, the environmental health officers (EHOs) generally arrive in your premises unannounced and will want to ask lots of questions and look at all aspects of your operation. This can be quite traumatic for younger or newer members of staff who have to deal with this if you’re not there. They might have forgotten the correct temperature for storing cooked meats and feel quite flustered. Even the experts will tell you that the law on food hygiene is complex and ever changing, but ignorance of the law will be no excuse in the event that you are found to be doing something wrong!

There is some good news as well.

• A great deal of what is contained in the various laws, rules and regulations boils down to common sense.
• Environmental health officers are reasonable people. Whilst they do have the power to take enforcement action and even close shops down in extreme cases, their aim is to be constructive in helping you to run your particular business successfully whilst complying with the relevant laws.
• EHOs must comply with statutory codes and guidelines when it comes to enforcing the law. They are not entitled to push people around and if they do you will have recourse against them.
• EHOs assess the likely risk associated with particular food outlets. So long as you are seen to be making reasonable efforts to follow the advice and directions of your local EHO you will find that you will be regarded as low risk – you will receive fewer visits, leaving officers more time to concentrate on the problem places.

Whilst there are numerous laws on the subject of food hygiene, the main aim of all of them is the rather noble one of protecting human health. Of great relevance to sandwich-coffee bars are the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 and the Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995. These apply to England and Wales and Scotland. There are equivalent regulations for Northern Ireland.

There is one particular publication which deals with the subject of compliance with these regulations. It is called ‘Industry Guide To Good Hygiene Practice: Catering Guide’. The guide is a government inspired document painstakingly prepared by leading experts in the field. It is published by Chadwick House Group Ltd. It currently costs £3.60.

Whatever other publications you consider buying I recommend that you get hold of a copy of this guide well before you sell your first sandwich. If you don’t have any catering training it will open your eyes to the various issues you will have to address when setting up and operating your business. It also gives details of other publications which deal in greater detail with specific subjects.

What’s more, it is particularly useful and relevant because enforcement officers must give due consideration to it when assessing compliance in particular cases. You will, so to speak, be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Areas of concern

Here are the main health and hygiene areas of concern to sandwich-coffee bars which are dealt with in the guide:

1. Identification of steps critical to food safety

The obligation here is to identify possible food hazards in your particular business. The jargon is ‘Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point’ (HACCP). A food hazard basically means any kind of contamination which could cause harm to the consumer – i.e. your beloved customers. The three areas are:

• Bacteria or other micro-organisms that cause food poisoning
• Chemicals – cleaning materials or pest baits for example
• Foreign material such as bits of glass.

Your job is to analyse and identify the possible areas of the shop or stages of production which could be hazardous and take appropriate steps to eradicate the risks. This could mean ensuring good personal hygiene practices by your staff or cleaning and disinfection of equipment or repair of a faulty piece of electrical equipment. Having identified potential hazards it is not enough to simply deal with them once, you have to be able to demonstrate that you have taken steps to introduce systems to deal with the hazards and monitor these systems for continuing effectiveness.

2. Food hygiene supervision and instruction and/or training

The exact wording of the regulation is:

‘The proprietor of a food business shall ensure that food handlers engaged in the food business are supervised and /or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their activities.’

In larger organisations there may be job demarcation in which case different types and levels of supervision and training may be required. However, in most small independent sandwich-coffee bars everybody does everything so all staff – and you – are in the same boat.

When you take on new staff you should instruct them in the essentials of food hygiene before they start work. These are fairly obvious and include:

• personal hygiene and clean clothing
• washing hands thoroughly before handling food, after using the toilet, after breaks and so on
• reporting any skin, nose, throat, stomach or bowel troubles or infected wounds
• clean-as-you-go – keep all equipment and surfaces clean and free from debris as far as possible.

All staff should also receive hygiene awareness instruction, ideally within four weeks of starting work. This includes such items as:

• cross-contamination – causes and ways of prevention
• awareness of pests
• food storage – the protection of different foods and the maintenance of correct temperatures
• waste disposal, acceptable cleaning and disinfection practices.

The other matter which is now taken very seriously indeed is formal training. There are three levels of training: basic/elementary (Level 1), intermediate (Level 2) and advanced (Level 3). Levels 2 and 3 are appropriate for those who intend to make a career in catering and who progress to jobs such as managers or supervisors who handle any types of food.

Larger organisations sometimes arrange for in-house training. However, small businesses generally send their staff on professionally run day-long courses. Such courses usually last about six hours. The aim is to teach the basic principles of food hygiene. The courses will cover:

• food poisoning and its sources
• simple (very simple, honest) microbiology
• premises and equipment
• common food hazards
• personal hygiene
• preventing food contamination
• food poisoning – symptoms and causes
• cleaning and disinfection
• legal obligations
• pest control
• effective temperature control of food.

Courses are run by various organisations including:

• The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
• The Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene
• The Royal Society of Health
• The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland
• Society of Food Hygiene Technology.

In addition your local EHO will be able to give you details of suitable courses in your area.

A one-day course lasting six hours doesn’t sound too onerous but this can create problems. You may well have a reasonably high turnover of staff. So this means you might be having to send somebody on one of these courses every few months or so. That’s one day every few months or so when you don’t have the services of one member of staff (in a small place possibly one third of the workforce), who will nonetheless expect to be paid and receive travelling expenses. And there’s the cost of the course itself – probably £75 plus VAT minimum. Of course it’s all tax deductible but you have to pay for it upfront.

There is one way round this which you might want to consider.

If you undergo and pass the advanced course you can apply to be registered with your local authority as a food hygiene trainer. This means that you are then regarded as sufficiently qualified to teach your own staff what they need to know to satisfy the requirements of the regulations.

Not only that but you could then have a sideline of teaching the course to other people. You could use your own premises for this, possibly at weekends or evenings or you could go to students’ places of work. This could be a useful source of extra revenue, though your local environmental health department may require you to undergo some further training with them before allowing you to teach the general public – check with them.

But of course, as always, nothing is ever simple or easy.

• The course lasts approximately 30 hours and is usually spread over ten weeks (although there are shorter intensive courses available as well).
• It involves a fair amount of academic work including essay writing and there’s an all-day exam at the end which includes an oral test.
• It’s expensive, anything between £600 and £1,000, but it will pay for itself eventually. It’s all tax deductible and it will provide you with a marketable skill.

With the increasing levels of employment in the hospitality and catering industries and the increased emphasis on training you might well find that prospective employees already have a qualification. I think that is the government’s aim. This will then be a factor in deciding whether to take somebody on. But don’t employ somebody who doesn’t seem quite right just for the sake of saving £100 or so.

3. The rules of hygiene

This area is concerned with the premises and those parts of the premises in which food or drink is prepared, served or stored. It includes ancillary areas such as toilets, staff rooms, cellars and so on.

The list of requirements covered under this heading is long and detailed. It includes:

• Maintenance of the premises in good repair and condition.
• Suitable layout, design and construction to permit adequate cleaning and disinfection.
• Regular cleaning of all areas of premises – it is recommended that you keep a record of this. Pro-forma cleaning schedules can easily be produced on a PC.
• Sufficient space in food preparation and storage areas to allow preparation of high risk foods on separate work surfaces.
• An adequate number of suitably located wash basins with hot and cold water.
• Provision of suitable and sufficient natural or mechanical ventilation – this avoids the build-up of heat or humidity levels which might endanger the safety of the food.
• Sanitary conveniences to be fitted with adequate natural or mechanical ventilation.
• In rooms where food is prepared floor and wall surfaces must be maintained in sound condition and must be easy to clean.
• Equipment used for the preparation of food must be kept clean and maintained in good enough condition as to minimise the risk of contamination of the food.
• Food waste must be stored in suitable containers which should be emptied and cleaned regularly.
• Routine checks should be made on deliveries of food to check that they are in good condition and not contaminated – this provision is more relevant to items such as raw meat.
• Raw food material must be properly stored in such a way as to preserve it in the best possible condition and avoid contamination.
• Where appropriate, adequate provision must be made for any necessary washing of food – in practice this means that separate sinks must be provided for food preparation and equipment if the volume of preparation demands it.
• Vehicles used for the transport of food (quite possibly your private car) must be kept clean and in good condition and there must be adequate provision for the separation of food items from other things being transported in the vehicle.
• Adequate measures must be in place to ensure pests are controlled. Apart from an electric fly-killer you should, at the first sign of bugs or mice droppings, call in a pest control expert and enter into an annual contract whereby they will treat the problem, put down bait or traps and attend immediately if there is any recurrence. The contractor will keep a record of treatments which is evidence that you are complying with this particular requirement. This can then be shown to an EHO during a spot check. It may well be sensible to enter into such a contract before any problems arise.
• Domestic premises: the provisions are essentially the same as for the shop. (See also Chapter Six for points specific to domestic premises.)

If you take over a going concern you will have to give consideration to the current state of the unit. If it all looks pretty run down you may well find that the cost of bringing it up to acceptable standards is considerable. I’m not saying this should put you off – but you must factor this into your overall start-up costs.

I mentioned previously the value of consulting an EHO early. Their advice on this area will be particularly useful and should be sought before you commit yourself to anything. You might well find that the EHO knows all about the premises in question from previous dealings!

Temperature controls

This is a particularly important area since foods stored at too high a temperature provide fertile sites for the growth of undesirable bacteria. The ‘Industry Guide to Good Hygiene Practice’ referred to previously contains details of the different kinds of foods and the rules and temperatures which apply to them. It also explains the different methods of testing the temperatures of food as well as refrigerated units.

It is regarded as good practice to keep written records of temperature checks. You can produce suitable simple pro forma charts on a PC. In the event of any concern on the part of an EHO the production of temperature charts will help you to demonstrate that you have exercised ‘due diligence’ in storing food – a key test in such situations.

From the point of view of a sandwich-coffee bar proprietor it is interesting, and to me not a little surprising, that cold food may be kept at levels above the usual limits (which are up to 5°C for refrigerated equipment and 8°C for the actual food) for up to four hours ‘for certain practicalities’. What this means is that if you make up some sandwiches at 10 o’clock in the morning you can display them on an unrefrigerated shelf at ambient temperatures until two o’clock.

My view is that this provision is a recipe for substandard sandwiches being sold to the public. Sandwiches made from fresh bread and ingredients are designed to be eaten at the earliest opportunity. Not only that but whilst they are being offered for sale, perhaps on a warm summer’s day, they should be kept in the best possible condition from the customer’s point of view. To me this means displaying them only on a refrigerated shelf.

I suspect this provision is a sop to take-aways set up years ago, before the days when food hygiene was such a hot issue. In my view anybody starting a sandwich bar now would be committing commercial suicide by selling unrefrigerated sandwiches. The public are used to and expect better.

Health and safety

Related to the issue of food hygiene is that of health and safety – and there is a certain amount of overlap.

As with food hygiene there is a mass of legislation. It would be completely unrealistic for you to become familiar with it all. However, as with food hygiene a lot of it boils down to common sense and the authorities will always be available to give advice on anything you’re not sure about.

The principal statute on the subject is The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. You are responsible for the health and safety of everyone affected by your business. This covers:

• employees
• tradespeople working in your premises
• people visiting your premises – i.e. customers
• people outside your premises – e.g. people affected by emissions from your shop.

The first thing to point out is that if you have employees you must register with your local council – usually with the Environmental Health Department. Contact your local environmental health officer to obtain details of how to do this in your area.

Health and safety policy

You should also have a policy on health and safety. If you have five or more employees it must be in writing and the document must be brought to the attention of all employees. Clearly what the government principally has in mind with such legislation is the safety of people working with dangerous or complex machinery in factories or on building sites, etc. However, there are most certainly areas of relevance to the proprietor of a sandwich bar, for instance:

• what to do in the event of an accident
• not leaving objects in places where people could trip over them
• location of first aid kit
• having a system of work which allows for the free circulation of staff
• safe storage of knives.

I would suggest that such matters be included in a section of the staff handbook, thus avoiding the need to burden your staff with yet another document. In fact, you could combine the staff handbook with the written particulars of employment (or ‘contract of employment’) and just have one document to cover everything.

Risk assessment

In order to be fully aware of potential problem areas you should carry out a risk assessment. In an average sized shop unit you will probably have become aware of most likely difficulties in the course of acquiring and fitting out the place. Some you might not become aware of until you are up and running.

We found that some drinks cans were delivered around lunch time. This meant that we had a sweating delivery driver laden down with four or five trays of juice cans backing into the shop at a time when there were lots of customers coming, going and queuing. Clearly a recipe for disaster. We simply told the company concerned that deliveries would have to take place before 11.00am or after 3.00pm.

Either way it is your duty to make sure that the staff are aware of problems and how to deal with them. Remember, you can’t assume that a new employee will have such things explained to them by existing employees – it’s your responsibility.

Employer’s liability insurance

You must have employers’ liability insurance. This can be arranged by your insurance adviser. A current certificate confirming that the cover is in place must be displayed on the premises.

Staff training

I have touched on the subject of staff training previously. Your obligation also extends to making sure that staff are aware of any relevant health and safety procedures. You are also supposed to monitor them to see that they are getting it right. In an operation the size of a sandwich-coffee bar this will occur naturally in the course of the work, but you should be aware of your responsibilities nonetheless. There is a poster called ‘Health and Safety Law: What You Should Know’. This should either be put up on the wall or given to staff individually. It can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive (01787 881165).

Another area of responsibility is fire precautions. In the case of a sandwich-coffee bar these are fairly limited and will probably amount to having a fire extinguisher in good working order and a couple of fire blankets. Contact your local fire prevention officer who will be happy to visit the premises and advise you on any other appropriate measures.

Beware of salesmen who come round trying to get you to sign contracts for the purchase and maintenance of fire extinguishers. In my experience people who operate this way charge substantially more than the companies you contact through Yellow Pages.

Other responsibilities

Many of the other matters you are responsible for amount to little more than common sense. They include:

• adequate clean toilet facilities
• comfortable temperatures to work in (at least 13°C where people are active – this certainly applies to a sandwich bar)
• adequate lighting
• a rest area – though this need not be a separate room
• first aid facilities
• an accident book in which all accidents and ‘near misses’ should be recorded.

Under the RIDDOR rules (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) you are required to report:

• serious injuries or deaths related to your business
• dangerous incidents, for instance if a piece of electrical equipment suddenly went on fire
• employee absences of more than three days as a result of an accident
• the certification by a doctor of specified occupational diseases (detailed in a booklet called ‘RIDDOR 95’ obtainable from the Environmental Health Department).

In the event of any of these things happening you should contact your EHO.

The local authority – usually the Environmental Health Department – is in charge of health and safety. If you have any queries at all you should always contact your local EHO in the first instance.

Labelling

There are complicated regulations which apply to the labelling of many foodstuffs including sandwiches in certain circumstances. They currently derive from a 1997 EU Directive and are known as the ‘QUID Regulations’. Your life will doubtless be enriched by the knowledge that ‘QUID’ stands for Quantitative Ingredient Declarations. The regulations aim to enhance and assist consumer choice when buying food by providing information about the ingredients of what they are buying. The main result is that you have to include on the label what percentage of all of the ingredients the principal ingredients constitute, the principal ingredients being the things that influence the consumer to buy a food product in the first place – e.g. the egg and cress in an egg and cress sandwich. So if the rules apply, the label has to say ‘Eggs 36%, Cress 4%’ or whatever.

However, you can relax – the regulations do not apply to sandwiches sold on the premises where they were made, or on other premises owned by the manufacturer. In other words, if you have two outlets and you make sandwiches in one to be sold in the other then the regulations will not apply.

It is important to be aware of the regulations if you buy in pre-packed sandwiches from a large sandwich manufacturer – in this case the regulations will certainly apply. If the manufacturer has not put on the correct labelling then you the retailer will be in breach of the regulations. Similarly if you decide there is a market for you in making sandwiches for other, separate outlets then the sandwiches you supply to them must be correctly labelled. To obtain more information and guidance about this issue you should contact your local council and ask to speak to a trading standards officer.

Organic food

Lots of people like the idea of being able to describe the things they sell as organic. Organic products are usually more expensive, which can be a turn-off for customers, but as they become more common then no doubt prices will come down a bit.

However, beware. If you want to be able to advertise the fact that even one ingredient in your sandwiches, say cucumber, is organic you have to first register with UKROFS (United Kingdom Register of Organic Food Standards). This involves your business being audited and then accredited. It is felt in the sandwich industry generally that this is oppressive since there are costs involved in becoming accredited – fair enough if you plan to be all-organic but not if you just want to advertise the fact that you sell one or two organic ingredients.

I understand the British Sandwich Association intends to pursue this matter with UKROFS so that the position might change in the future. In the meantime if this is a matter of importance in your case you can contact UKROFS at:

Room 118, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, LONDON SWIP 3JR. Tel: 0207 2385915.

The strictures do not apply if you buy in pre-prepared sandwiches with organic ingredients and sell them in their original packaging. Similarly they do not apply if you use some organic ingredients but do not advertise the fact.