Food Safety Management Procedures Within a Catering Business - Assignment Example

Word count: 2200 Order # 423429 d 24th March Food safety management procedures within a catering business A of how food safety management procedure ensures effective compliance with current legislation and codes of practice in your catering business. Food safety is nothing but a process in which strict care would be taken to ensure ideal handling, production and storage of the food products so that the human health wouldn’t be affected negatively (Loken, 1995). Food safety discipline is a branch of science that deals with the various aspects of food production, food transportation and food storage for ensuring better human health. The emphasis on safe food is increasing day by day as unsafe food causes many acute and life-long diseases, ranging from diarrhoeal diseases to several forms of cancer (Marriott and Gravani, 2006). Hence, in our company “MR CLEAN” we strictly adhere to the food safety measures. MR CLEAN is a small company with 34 employees working in different capacities. It has 1 manager, 1 quality monitoring expert (food technologist), 1 general supervisor, 4 cooks, 13 food catering members, 2 food catering supervisors, 2 marketing executives, 3 procurement team members, 1 telephone operator, 1 billing agent and 5 cleaning staff. MR CLEAN takes all accurate steps for maintaining the food hygiene and quality. It always strives best to follow the regulations of WHO and other international and national agencies related to food safety. It was estimated by WHO that food borne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases together kill about 2.2 million people annually and more than 90 % of them belong to children making the situation more alarming. WHO has been instrumental in organizing several events and activities that address the problems of food safety in different regions of the world and it assists all its member nations to fight against the unsafe food practices for ensuring ideal human health. It has come up with five important elements of food safety i.e. keeping ourselves clean, separation of raw and cooked foods, thorough cooking, keeping food at safer temperatures and use of safe water and raw materials. United Kingdom also got benefited by the food safety programmes of the WHO and at national level also some important food safety awareness programmes are under progress. However, the strict legislation on food safety management aspects would be necessary for effective human health in UK. The concern for the safe food delivery has been increasing in the recent times especially in catering and hotel industry (Silverstone, 1995). Due to the increased occupation of people in different working environments, their dependence on hotel food and catering food has gone up. This also necessitates the required steps for having access to clean and safe food. Let us look at the present status of the food safety legislation in UK and how MR CLEAN satisfy these regulations. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) is one of the important food safety ensuring functionaries in the UK. CAC is nothing but an intergovernmental body for functioning of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme that came in to operation with FAO Conference resolution in 1961 and World Health Assembly resolution, WHA 16.42, in 1963. Most importantly, the CAC is applicable to the governments of all member nations of FAO and WHO including UK. Its main aim is to protect the health of consumers and to facilitate the trade of food by setting international standards on foods and other legislations. MR CLEAN thoroughly follows the food safety measures by strictly adhering to hygiene food collection, food cleaning with hot water and clean kitchen atmosphere, temperature regulation which satisfy the CAC regulations. Finally these resolutions will be suggested to governments for acceptance and successful implementation so that the human health would be taken care. It is heartening to note that in 2003, the FAO/WHO Project and Fund for Enhanced Participation in Codex (Codex Trust Fund) was launched with a main objective of establishing Codex Trust Fund for extending help to developing countries for increasing their level of effective participation in the Codex. The aim of the legislation is to make the organs of the government more responsible in the food safety programmes. In UK, the responsibility for enforcement of food safety standards is shared between central and local government bodies. In general, central government takes the function of making the legislation i.e. introduction and passing of the bill on food safety. Majority programmes fail because of lack of success in implementation. Hence, the local bodies in UK are entrusted with the successful implementation and enforcement of food law through Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) and Trading Standards Officers (TSOs). MR CLEAN is always in touch with the EHOs and TSOs so that any quality monitoring as required by UK government would be met at any time. At the same time, the role of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is also noteworthy in maintaining the quality food safety norms in UK. FSA is an independent Government Department with highest level of flexibility in its functioning related to various food safety programmes in UK. It is also an enforcement authority in its own right and is responsible for enforcement support, monitoring and audit of enforcement activity at local authority level related to food safety and standards controls. However, in subjects where food law enforcement does not rest with local authorities, it the central Government and its subsidiary enforcement agencies would take the necessary steps for successful implementation of the food safety norms. It is always not possible to depend on single agency for ensuring quality food norms in UK. Moreover, the food safety is mostly affected by microbiological processes (Jay et al., 2005). For example, Campylobacter species are responsible for acute bacterial enteritis in the U.K. (Garcia et al., 2010). Hence the responsibility has been entrusted to various other specific agencies for maintaining the quality food norms. For example, the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) Veterinary Service were give authority to monitor the meat quality and safety in UK. Similarly, the strict measures for ensuring the EU wine regulations were initiated in UK by monitoring all premises and traders related to production and marketing of vineyards. At the same time, the role of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) should be remembered. Its subsidiary agencies like Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) make effective inspection of food products for ensuring safe and clean food supply to people. MR CLEAN maintains food safety measures starting from collection to food packaging and supply to the customers very strictly and accurately and it always passed in the tests conducted by MHS, DARD and Defra. MR CLEAN takes utmost care in food handling and packaging. It maintains the necessary thermo regulation guidelines by maintaining the standard temperatures for effective food preservation which meets the standards of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System). The packaging materials used by MR CLEAN will not allow any release of chemicals and food poisoning and they meet the CAC guidelines. 2. An explanation of how you, as a manager in your catering business, can establish, monitor and verify food safety management procedures. In our company ‘MR CLEAN’ we always ensure safe food to the customers not only at our restaurant but also at catering points. We have followed the necessary steps for ensuring safe food production, delivery and storage of food materials. Our hygiene environment is instrumental in maintaining the food safety and quality norms in tune with the national and international standards like HACCP system, EU legislation like regulation NO 178/2002 and 852/2004. Let us examine the food safety norms at our company as follows: The recruitment of well qualified staff in our company ensures the highest level of quality environment t be maintained in the kitchen and other food serving premises. We recruited 4 cooks including chief cook who are well qualified with standard hotel management degrees and well trained in the standard training agencies regarding the measures for food safety in restaurants and catering centres. The food delivery staff was also recruited in good number i.e. 15 to meet the catering demand. All the delivery staff members are degree holders from reputed universities to ensure that the quality food is ensured. All the cooks and delivery staff members are given four sets of uniform dress every year and their hygiene is regularly monitored by two supervisors. The punctuality of the staff members is regularly checked by time entry and departure machine. All the staff members who have more than 98% attendance in a year are given special incentives. Our procurement of food material is done from organically certified / registered agricultural farms. This ensures the use of organic and pollution free fruits and vegetables along with the food grains. This also helps us in identifying the potential physical, chemical and biological hazards associated with food materials so that the efficient control measures would be taken in proper time. In case of meat, chicken, eggs and prawns, the procurement is done from a virus free well maintained registered supplying agencies. Moreover, our procurement staff was given professional training on safety measures to be followed while procuring food materials. The other food additives are purchased from all hygienic super markets where temperature regulation for food safety is ensured. The basic infrastructure maintained in the restaurant and kitchen meet the standards of the food safety enforcement agencies like DEFRA, CAC and MHS. The purchase of food it self is well managed and monitored through our trained supervisors who never compromise on food quality. The automatic temperature regulators and ovens in restaurant also meet the standards for the storage devices to be maintained for ensuring the food quality. The food is always either cooled to less than 5oC or heated to more than 40oC temperature so that the bacterial pathogens will not survive in our restaurant. We also have a small food testing laboratory which will help us in testing the foods for pathogen intensity and our food monitoring specialist regularly checks the samples for food safety and proper documentation is also followed for the record of HACCP standards. The delivery time also is very less compared to other caterers and hence the fresh foods supply is ensured with us. The food packing will be done in a biodegradable materials which will not result in food poisoning. The polythene materials for food packing in our company is highly prohibited. The food supplied by us is free from adulteration and food poisoning for ensuring safe human health as we have recruited a food technologist. 3. A critical analysis of an incident when a food safety management procedure failed-including details of the corrective actions taken and an explanation of how these were communicated to ensure food safety in the future. Though we take proper care in production and supply of the food to the customers, some times, unforeseen happenings may occur requiring our prompt corrective measures. This holds true because of perishable nature of foods we handle and due to the sudden changes in atmospheric parameters. It is always not possible to monitor the food quality at supply level due to enormous demand during marriage season. We also faced one such incident and handled it with utmost care by implementing the following corrective measures. a. We got the information that the meat product supplied by us was having microbiological problem due to infection of Campylobacter zezuni at production stage which unknowingly was supplied to us by the producer. Once the producer got the information, the message was sent to us and at the same time, our laboratory report also suggested some deviation from the necessary standard limits. We already started the supply and hence we immediately made all the delivery agents alert by sending the telephonic messages. They were instructed not to supply the food to the customers. b. The respective customers were also intimated not to use the food products if the material was supplied to them with a message of apology. Fortunately, no customer received the food products before sending the message. c. We immediately contacted other hotel agencies and requested them to supply the similar food items so that the customers wouldn’t face the problem. d. We also recorded the development in our register and letter to the enforcement agency was delivered explaining the corrective measures taken. e. In future, we will take care in avoiding such type of incidences by increasing the frequency of laboratory testing at our food laboratory and by procuring the meat products at least 3 hours earlier than the present time so that all the samples can be tested before the final food preparation. f. We have blacklisted that supplier from our list and we will purchase meat products from highly standard supplying agencies according to the HACCP standards. The recommendation of the company ‘MR CLEAN’ on corrective actions and improved food safety management practice to ensure safe food in future. Food irradiation measures will be taken up in future to avoid the incidence of food pathogens which will ensure highest level of food safety. The company will start its own vegetable production farm where organic farming is strictly followed so that the control over the food products will be taken care. MR CLEAN will also establish linkages with dairy and meat production firms who will give higher preference to supply safe food. The food laboratory will be expanded and 2 more food quality staff will be recruited exclusively to help the food technologist in testing the samples at regular intervals. One legal expert will be recruited by MR CLEAN who will study the recent legislations related to food standards in UK and will ensure the implementation of the same in the company. References Garcia, A.B., Steele, W.B. and Taylor, D.J. (2010). Prevalence And Carcass Contamination With Campylobacter In Sheep Sent For Slaughter In Scotland. Journal of Food Safety. 30 (1) : 237-250. Jay, J.M., Loessner, M.J. and Golden, D.A. (2005). Modern Food Microbiology (Food Science Texts Series). Springer publication. P:790. ISBN-10: 0387231803. Loken, J.K. (1995). The HACCP Food Safety Manual. Wiley publication, P:352. ISBN-10: 0471056855. Marriott, N.G. and Gravani, R.B. (2006). Principles of Food Sanitation (Food Science Texts Series). Springer publication. P:413. ISBN-10: 0387250255. Silverstone, R. (1995). Towards a leaner kitchen. Nutrition & Food Science (UK). 13 : 4. Read More