I appeared as the food safety expert on the recent BBC 1 series, keeping Matt Allwright and Anita Rani informed about food safety issues seen from under-cover footage. The last one of the series is shown at 8 pm Thursday 4th September 2008.
I wasn’t involved in the undercover work, but was asked to go in the back of the under-cover van with Matt and Anita to discuss issues raised from the filming. In many cases, what was filmed was the instant reaction to the footage – there was no script.
However, the important message here is that food safety is actually quite simple to achieve, and need not cost a lot of money. In some cases, we saw blatant disregard by proprietors to produce safe food, but in others, it may have been a matter of lack of training and understanding. On programme 5 we discuss how improvements can be made easily, and the result for one food premises was a much improved scores on doors rating following the intervention of the presenters.
Below I have listed some of the key issues shown on the programmes and provided some simple solutions for proprietors to address simply and cost effectively.
Stock rotation is critical – it is an offence to sell food beyond the use by date, and if you have this on your premises, an EHO could take action. It’s a simple job to check all labels last thing at night and remove food that will be out of date the next day. Also, home made food needs to be labelled so in general it is not kept for more than three days (including day of production and day of service). Make sure that any system in place is simple and that staff are aware of how the system works.
Cleaning – it’s not rocket science! If you can see dirt, it’s not clean! Disinfection is needed for food contact and hand contact surfaces – use an anti-bacterial cleanser or sanitizer to make life easier – it cleans and disinfects at the same time.
Cloths! Oh there were some horrible specimens in the series – don’t let this become an issue for you. A cloth is a bug super-highway. Put E. coli on a cloth and it can spread round the kitchen faster than Jeremy Clarkson test driving a Ferrari! A global domestic hygiene survey carried our by Hygiene Audit Systems for the UK Hygiene Council also found similar results. Use paper towels wherever possible.
Temperature Control
We saw food being kept out of temperature control on a number of occasions, with the prize surely gong to the sausage that had been in and out of the fridge like a yo-yo with the predictable result that it was covered in mould and had high counts of bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, which can cause rapid onset of vomiting or diarrhoea.
Pest control
If you have a problem, don’t ignore it – get a professional company to help, and also help yourself:
- Keep the place clean – remove the food source
- Cover foods
- Fill holes, close windows and doors. Remember mice can get through tiny holes.
- Get rid of clutter and rubbish – remove any harbourage and shelter
- Check out the outside of the premises –are you attracting pests?
Make sure that all staff members receive adequate training and coaching on the company policies and procedures – this does not have to take long. Reminder posters and notices can help – and I always say try to make any training specific to your operation and explain why things need to be done – you are much more likely to get a good result.
Hygiene Audit Systems specialises in making food safety simple and practical, so if you need some help to improve your scores on doors, whatever the size of the company, we will be pleased to lend a hand. Food safety needn’t cost a fortune, but it could save you one!
To comment on this piece please click on “comments”
September 10, 2008 at 10:51 am |
Dear Dr Ackerley
I have been following the Rogue Restaurants: BBC1 Series and found it very interesting. There was one or two of the pubs shown which myself and my family visited. To be honest this series it has put me off going out to eat altogether.
I found what some of the kitchen staff get up to utterly disgusting and am appalled that it took the BBC to go in undercover for these to be highlighted to the various different managers and owners.
Are there any tips you can give me so that I can avoid eating in places showing poor food safety and health and safety?
Thanks
September 16, 2008 at 6:59 am |
Hello and thank you for your response. I am glad that you found the series interesting if not a little disconcerting too! Unfortunately bad practices such as the ones highlighted in the programme do occasionally occur and sometimes it takes an undercover report to show just how bad things can be. Obviously poor practices such as reusing food or swigging out of bottles are unlikely to happen when Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP’s) or Food Safety Consultants are there. However rest assured that all restaurants do receive hygiene visits and most EHP’s are well versed in how to spot a restaurant that has poor hygiene standards. I am sorry that this programme has put you off eating out but am glad to report that you can now look up the score that an EHP has given to a restaurant using the ‘Scores on the Doors’ scheme. The primary purpose of these schemes is to empower consumers so that they can make a more informed choice about where they eat.
Although at present there are many different schemes in use (and unfortunately some areas where there are no schemes), the food standards agency will soon be introducing a national scheme so that all consumers can find out about food businesses in their areas. Basically the schemes involve EHP’s giving businesses a food hygiene score that reflects their inspection findings. Some businessses may display this at the point of sale but if not the score is also available via a website where consumers can see the scores for all the businesses in the local area. You can check to see whether a scheme is running in your area by clicking on the following link: Food Standards Agency – Scores on the Doors. For the record, not all food businesses have anywhere near the poor hygiene standards that you saw in Rogue Restaurants. Lots of premises have good food safety systems in place. We have many clients who have very good procedures and practices in place and good standards that we can audit them against. These premises are likely to receive much higher Scores on the Doors to reflect their higher standards. Should any business out there wish to improve their potential Score on the Door, Hygiene Audit Systems has recently developed a new low cost food safety toolkit that has everything a small business needs to improve food safety and hence their potential Score on the Door!