by Darren Ratcliffe | Apr 29, 2021 | Uncategorized
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme ran by the Food Standards Agency is designed to help customers choose where to eat out or shop for food by providing information about the business’s hygiene standards.
The rating is a quick visual guide for customers to understand whether they can trust the standards of hygiene within a business and can have a positive or detrimental effect on your business’s reputation.
Breakdown of the Ratings
A premises will be rated from 0-5, with 5 being the best you can achieve. Here’s a break down of what each rating means:
5: very good
4: good
3: generally satisfactory
2: some improvement is necessary
1: major improvement is necessary
0: urgent improvement is required
The Inspection
Upon inspection, an officer will visit a premises to check the standards of how food is handled, stored, and prepared. The office will rate the cleanliness of the facilities and how food safety is managed.
There are three main elements which the officer will check, including:
- Food handling:
How food is stored, prepared, cooked, cooled, and reheated - Condition of premises:
Cleanliness of building, correct facilities, lighting, ventilation, layout and any pest control - Food safety management:
Training, systems and processes in place to ensure good hygiene is maintained
If the top rating is not given, the officer will explain the necessary actions to be taken to improve. Detailed information is included in the food safety officer’s inspection report which can be requested in a Freedom of Information request.
How to Achieve 5 Stars
Training
It is preferred that formal training has been undertaken by staff to understand how the food hygiene system works and how to manage food safely. Placing staff on accredited training courses can be of value to ensure staff are confident in meeting this requirement.
Staff are also expected to understand personal hygiene, such as wearing clean and protective clothing and keeping hair tied back when handling food.
Food storage
It is important to demonstrate that you have a process for storing food in the correct way and have a method of monitoring and updating use-by dates.
Prevention of cross-contamination
You must show that you are aware of the dangers caused by cross-contamination in food preparation. Officers will need to see specific areas for different types of food prep such as raw meat and vegetables.
Record keeping
It is important for businesses to keep an up-to-date record of everything that is being done regarding food storage and safety processes. This includes fridge and food temperatures, cleaning and risk assessments, as well as staff training.
Pest Control
There must be some form of pest control management in place to protect the business against rodents and insects. How you store waste is also taken into consideration as this can increase your chance of pests. If an Inspector finds any signs of an infestation, you will be marked down.
To gain a 5-star rating, a well-managed process and clear roles for staff to ensure all these points are constantly maintained is necessary. Training staff in food safety and awareness will guarantee that the workforce is maintaining high standards and will demonstrate confidence to the Inspector.
If you would like to get comprehensive training for your staff, book on to one of our open courses [link] starting from only £35. Or if you have a workforce that you would like us to come in and train for a reduced cost, please get in touch for a tailored training day to meet your team’s needs. Contact us on 0161 797 4962 or [email protected].
by Darren Ratcliffe | Jul 8, 2019 | Training
CHAS (The Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) was created by health and safety professionals to improve health and safety standards across the UK. ? In line with legislation, their aim is:
- To simplify health and safety contractor assessment by standardising requirements.
- To allow companies to avoid undergoing health and safety assessments for every job.
- To provide assurance and reassurance.
There are more than 900 public and private sector client organisations and 70,000 contractors registered on the CHAS database.
So what training requirements are needed to become accredited?
The size, nature and business scope of organisations going through CHAS Assessments may mean that additional and more advanced training is required to meet the necessary standards, however, CHAS will seek evidence that ALL CONTRACTORS have provided
A MINIMUM INDUCTION LEVEL OF TRAINING TO ALL EMPLOYEES in a range of core subjects. This training includes:
- Health & Safety Awareness
- Reporting of accidents, health issues and dangerous incidents (RIDDOR)
- Asbestos Awareness
- Working at Height
- First Aid
- Fire Safety Awareness Training
- Noise and vibration
- Personal protective equipment
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regs (COSHH)
- Electricity
- Manual handling
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment (PUWE) Regs
As a minimum – these training courses should be refreshed every 3 years and asbestos awareness refreshed annually.
THAT LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF TRAINING!! So, how can gaining accreditation be made easier and more cost effective for organisations?
It doesn’t have to be difficult, time consuming and expensive. At Compliance Training Ltd we can provide all this training in just 3 days (at the minimum requirement level).
A number of other options are available, but this is the most popular;
Day 1
- Health & Safety Awareness Training also incorporating;
- Reporting of accidents, health issues and dangerous incidents (RIDDOR)
- Noise and vibration
- Personal protective equipment
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regs (COSHH)
- Electricity
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment (PUWE) Regs
- Asbestos Awareness Training
Day 2
Day 3
Keeping the training reduced to 3 days, keeps the costs involved to the business much lower. Training rates are reduced due to the merging of topics (as little as £19 per person) It also means that employees are not off the job for longer than necessary, meaning less impact on capacity and workload.
by Darren Ratcliffe | May 5, 2019 | Training
We spend a lot of time and money networking, so why not make our pitches great!!!
Most networking groups allow members and visitors just 60 seconds to tell the room about their products and services and who their ideal clients are, so we have to plan to make it effective.
Here at Compliance Training Ltd, we try to be imaginative with our pitches, to make them memorable as well as ensuring that we give members a great overview of the training courses that we can provide.
Some of my most recent pitches have included –
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Role playing – I asked a couple of other members to carry out a short role play that I had created. This was to demonstrate how easy it is to go from a having a happy employee, to one that is injured at work and now prosecuting!! This was used to demonstrate the importance of Health and Safety Awareness Training in the workplace.
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Props – I used a CPR mannequin as a ventriloquist dummy to read my pitch about our First Aid training sessions!!! Another prop I used were stepladders when I discussed The Work at Heights Regulations 2005 and what would be classed as a height.
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Full group involvement – Before the start of the meeting, I placed a small piece of paper with a single word on it in front of all the people at the meeting. At the start of our pitch I asked everyone to stand up and, as like a Mexican wave, take it in turn to read their word, moving around the room in a clockwise manner. The room read my pitch for me. making it memorable.
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Case studies and statistics – I have used case studies and statistics a number of times, to again show the importance of staff training in order to avoid incidents in the workplace. My case studies have included real life stories of fires in the workplace (promoting our Fire Safety Awareness Training), care home case studies (promoting our Safeguarding and Dementia Awareness Training), food poisoning statistics (promoting our Food Safety Training), Case studies of tragic deaths caused by consuming food containing allergenic ingredients (promoting our Food Allergy Awareness Training) and many more…..
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Questions to the room – One of my questions, which was also visual and involved props, was for the room to guess which of the food sauces on display contained fish as an ingredient. There were a lot of very surprised members once I told them the answer!!! This again also demonstrated the importance of Food Allergen Awareness training, not only in food establishments such as restaurants and pubs, but also in schools, nurseries etc… Quite often these allergens are what we call ‘hidden allergens’ and is therefore not always obvious or expected.
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Poems and songs – I have created poems and songs to use as pitches for a number of training courses that we deliver.
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Themes – I have also linked these poems and songs to times of the year. A couple of examples include a Valentine poem about a number of our courses and a Christmas song to promote our Food Safety Training (see below).
Roses Are Red
Roses are Red,
lips going blue,
learn to give first aid,
so they will pull through.
Roses are red,
people starting to spew,
train in Food Safety
or lose custom and revenue.
Roses are red,
look after your crew,
Health & Safety training
or prepare for them to sue.
Roses are red,
your training is overdue,
come to compliance training ltd,
and we will help you.
Christmas Time, Turkey and Wine
A time for living, a time for believing,
a time for eating, and not for heaving.
Cook it well and refrigerate it faster,
otherwise you will cause an involuntary splatter.
Christmas time, turkey and wine,
diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting slime,
Don’t wait till it’s too late, I’m sure you’ll agree,
you should have looked after the turkey and brie.
A time for giving, a time for getting,
A time for forgiving and not for projecting
Christmas is love, Christmas is peace,
only reheat turkey once or you’ll get the sheeeeets!
Christmas time, turkey and wine,
diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting slime.
Don’t wait till it’s too late, I’m sure you’ll agree,
you should have looked after the turkey and brie.
I wish I had time every week to think of innovative pitches, but like most business owners, I don’t. Not all our pitches are like this, wish they were, but they’re not, but I always try hard to free up some time in my week to prepare, or I utilise my time whilst driving to venues to come up with my next pitch. After all, why not, we spend a lot of time and money networking, so why not give it our best!!
When planning your pitch, it is important to include all the relevant information you want to get across, including; who you are, what you do, ideal client/s, who you would like an introduction to etc…..but in a room full of people pitching, stand out!!! be different!!! make them look up!!! grab their attention!!! be remembered!!! and get more referrals.
Silvana Holt (Director Compliance Training Ltd)
