Health and safety responsibilities:
Employee health and welfare includes monitoring all
employee food hygiene standards!
Do you monitor your canteens?
Whether you have an in-house caterer or contract
services out...
Remember; you have a duty of care for your employees
welfare which includes all of their catering facilities!
A food service hygiene audit reduces your operational
risk, saving you time, effort and money.
General employee health and welfare
Benchmarking your food safety standards must include:
- Your contract or in-house caterer
- All vending facilities
- All kitchens
By cutting employee food poisoning risk you imediately improve general food safety and hygiene directly impacting employee safety standards ...
It is very easy for you to improve employee safety standards.... Click here.
A food hygiene audit provides a detailed bespoke report with solutions covering your canteens and vending, your site percentage score benchmarks standards and best practice recommendations.
Catering facilities impact all food safety standards 24/7.
When reinforcing inhouse catering guidelines or monitoring contract caterers it is important that you do not rely on caterer supplied data!
You must exclude your catering department's own monitoring for the following reasons:
If the catering department arrange their food service auditor; it is a fact that any data produced will have a clear bias.
This obvious vested interest means they will not divulge any detail that jeopardises the catering contract!
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...
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.
Independently auditing employee food hygiene standards is not about:
- Just checking food safety standards. Your in-house caterer will already work to strict in-house catering guidelines.
- Just increasing the contract caterers knowledge; they will have their own food hygiene training and be well versed on food service hygiene!
Independently auditing your caterers is about:
- Reducing operational risk: Highlighting all bad practice, helping you reduce your catering subsidy while proving due diligence.
- Data collated **Independently: Remember; as the employer you clearly have a duty of care and are legally responsible for the welfare of your employees.
**Data traceability MUST be completely independent of your catering department. They should never be in a position where they are allowed to source an independent consultancy charged with carrying 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! 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 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. You must be able to independently collate data which 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? We will organise your free site survey.
Please complete the form on the Contact us page; alternatively our telephone number is 0151-929 3273.
