Street Food News

13/6/2018

Food Safety in the summer

Read Now

Keeping your food safe through the warmer months.

Food safety expert Jenny Morris gives her two cents on how you can keep food safe in warmer climates this summer.

1,000,000 cases of food poisoning every year
Summer time and the living is easy. Or at least that’s what the Gershwin song said (if you are interested in old style musicals). But for many food businesses it means even more hard work. Hopefully it’s because good weather has brought more customers out. But when things start to heat up it’s important to think about what this means for food safety, particularly if you work outdoors in mobile or temporary outlets.

According to the Food Standards Agency there are around 1 million cases of food poisoning every year. And the number increases in the summer, particularly for cases of E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella. When I was working as an EHO, there was a large food poisoning outbreak one summer. It happened at a community event and was linked to barbecued chicken. The person in charge was not a professional caterer and knew a little about food safety. So, to make sure that the chicken was thoroughly cooked she par cooked the portions at home and brought them to the site in the back of her car (where they warmed up nicely in their black bags in the sun.) Then, the portions were quickly “flash cooked” on the barbecue – and later those who ate the chicken became ill.

Training matters
For me the learning from that incident is that “a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing”. So proper training in food hygiene is essential. And if you take on new staff in anticipation of increased summer trade, training should be an urgent priority. To a professional caterer the mistakes made in cooking the chicken will be well understood but sometimes there are some less obvious hazards that pop up when the sun shines. The food safety basics – “the 4 C’s” – remain the focus of the safety controls but some adjustments may be needed. So, let’s look at them in turn.

19 Comments

13/6/2018

Brexit causes one in 10 hospitality workers to consider leaving the UK

0 Comments

Read Now

Brexit causes one in 10 hospitality workers to consider leaving the UK

A survey concludes that one in 10 (11%) of hospitality employees are thinking of leaving the UK as a result of Brexit. The survey, conducted by YouGov on behalf of software company Planday, found that the figure, equivalent to around 300,000 UK employees, was a long way off the 4% staff loss predicted by employers in the industry.
3% of hospitality managers precited that they would be forced to close their businesses due to Brexit, and almost one in five have found staff recruitment harder now than this time last year.

John Coldicutt, chief commercial officer at Planday, said: “These findings show to us the depth of the potential impact of Brexit on the UK economy, with the hospitality industry being hit especially hard.

“There’s clearly false confidence within the hospitality sector with almost three times as many workers considering leaving as managers expect. Now more than ever it’s crucial that managers make sure they have the right infrastructure in place to engage their employees and build genuine loyalty.”

Specific Concerns
In terms of specific worker concerns, 24% of staff polled who were born outside the UK expressed concern about being forced to leave the country, while 11% of all staff polled expected to see a pay decrease and 6% expected to have to work longer hours as a result of Brexit.

45% of hospitality managers want the government to offer more support to the sector after Brexit and 30% want specific work permits to protect staff born outside of the UK.

Overall, the survey found that 53% of hospitality workers felt the UK had become a less welcoming place to live and work as a result of the Brexit vote.

However, of the businesses surveyed, 76% said they were ‘Brexit-ready’, with 10% training or upskilling (8%) staff, 15% recruiting from different markets such as older employees or working parents, 8% increasing salaries, 4% increasing staff benefits and 9% aiming to increase flexibility for workers.

0 Comments

STREET FOOD NEWS

Food Safety in the summer

Keeping your food safe through the warmer months.

Brexit causes one in 10 hospitality workers to consider leaving the UK

Brexit causes one in 10 hospitality workers to consider leaving the UK

Author

Archives

Categories

@Copyright 2016 - NCASS. The Nationwide Caterers Association