Report highlights care homes' food hygiene responsibilities
According to Caring Times magazine, food hygiene practices in health and care facilities have been in the news recently following a report issued by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
The magazine article, written by Paul Williams, looked at good food hygiene practice and showed that behind the headlines, the vast majority of care homes inspected are regarded as satisfactory.
Our Course Development Manager is an expert on Duty of Care policies and is regularly asked to contribute to the media; she gave the following comment:
"In the UK, food handlers don't have to attend formal food hygiene courses to prepare food.
"The necessary skills may be obtained through online learning, on-the-job training, a taught course or relevant prior experience, and it is left to the discretion of the employer to decide whether a refresher course is needed.
"Employers therefore have a responsibility to carefully assess the nature of their employees’ work and any proposed training to ensure it meets high quality standards. Those who are responsible for developing and maintaining an organisation’s food safety management procedures must also have received adequate training to enable them to fulfil their duty of care. Typically, this involves training in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.
“The law requires that all food handlers need appropriate supervision and instruction/training according to their food handling work activities. This will help organisations that operate as a food business, including care and nursing homes, to prove that they have displayed due diligence and are therefore compliant in the eyes of the law."
Bernadette finished by saying that: “Everyone who works in social care has a legal duty of care towards the individuals they support and a responsibility to prevent them from acquiring a food-related illness whilst in their care.”
You can read the full Caring Times article, here.
Food Hygiene Essentials is one of 15 training courses in our EduCare for Health & Social Care ® training course package.
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