Health and safety

Your Health and safety responsibilities:
Employee health and welfare includes monitoring all employee safety standards! Your duty of care for your employees welfare includes their catering facilities. 

So you must ensure a system of independent monitoring benchmarking all contractors that impact employee welfare...
This is crucial to reduce your operational risk especially with both contract catering services or in-house catering...

General employee health and welfare

• Your contract or in-house caterer
• All vending facilities
• All kitchens/ refreshment areas 

When reinforcing inhouse catering guidelines or monitoring contract caterers it is important that you do not rely on caterer supplied data. It is important to understand that as the duty holder you have a shared responsibility for standards even if your catering is contracted!

Exclude your catering department's own monitoring for the following reasons:

1. Any data produced by your caterer's choice of catering consultant will have a clear bias towards the caterer.
2. An obvious vested interest ensures detail that jeopardises the catering contract will be excluded!
3. This is not appropriate from a due diligence point of view; any data with potential bias leaves you vulnerable to food safety and hygiene related risk not to mention inflated catering budget costs...

Remember you are legally responsible and have a duty of care to ensure all employee safety standards, your health and safety responsibilities cover the health and welfare of your employees.

**Data traceability MUST be completely independent of your catering department. Your caterer should never be in a position where they are allowed to source or recommend an independent consultancy to carry out their own food service audit.

If you don't monitor catering standards, what is your risk?

• If corners were cut would that affect you as the employer?
  Answer: Yes because as the employer your duty for your employee's welfare is personal and non- delegable.
• If corners were cut does it affect your catering subsidy?
  Answer: Yes... Hidden profits from you! Poor marketing and menu management increases costs per head.
• If corners were cut would it impact staff morale?
  Answer: Poor welfare impacts all employees negatively!
• If corners were cut would it impact food service safety standards?
  Answer: Poor hygiene standards = Employee food poisoning risk!
• If corners were cut would this affect operational risk?
  Answer: Yes! For all of the reasons already listed.

From a due diligence point of view remember you are ultimately held liable for employee health welfare. You can delegate the duty to your contractors or employees but not your responsibility for a negligent performance!.

The irony is!

Currently your suppliers may conveniently arrange their own food service audit "FOR YOU". You are the employer and your employees are their customers. So their standards should plainly be monitored "BY YOU".

,

To summarise.

• This is not just about food safety standards, strict in-house catering guidelines or even food hygiene training. Independently collated data helps you prove due diligence as this protects your interests as the employer.
• Independent auditing ensures you will get all of the facts, good and bad. This helps you to resolve minor issues before they escalate into major problems.

How easy is it to introduce? Your site survey is free; complete the form on the Contact us page or Tel: 0151-929 3273.

 If you would prefer to carry out your own audit of standards visit the Self audit section of this website.