Whether you run a restaurant, a hotel or you’re a corporate event planner, wherever there is food involved you need to take food hygiene, health and safety incredibly seriously.
There are a great number of risks that come with working with food, though provided you have a good plan in place and you take the necessary precautions, you shouldn’t have any issues.
Neglect to do so on the other hand, and you can cause all manner of problems for yourself and those you’re serving food to.
In this post we are going to explore the 5 main reasons why you need a food hygiene, health and safety plan in place, no matter what – here’s why:
1 – Food Poisoning
Food poisoning is one of the most unpleasant things anyone can experience, particularly when you’ve put your faith in a restaurant or a corporate event and you’ve had your fill of what you thought to be safe food.
Food poisoning can even at times be fatal, which is why it is something that you should take very seriously, particularly if you don’t want any law-suits on your hands.
2 – Contamination
Cross-contamination is often the leading cause of food related illnesses such as food poisoning. This can be avoided altogether by putting a plan in place to separate the following 3 factors from contaminating your food:
- Raw Meat – Other foods can easily contaminate your food, spreading bacteria and causing all-manner of illnesses. A food plan can prevent cross-contamination and save you a world of trouble
- Chemicals – All chemicals should be stored properly, particularly when it comes to preparing food in the kitchen, neglect to do this and you customers or event participants will be at risk
- Human Interaction – When it comes to being a chef and preparing food, personal hygiene is incredibly important. A food hygiene, health and safety plan will enable those handling your food to take the necessary precautions when it comes to hygiene so that no germs and spread to the food that they are handling
3 – Reduces Waste
When food is scarce in parts of the world, you can’t in good conscience allow your kitchen to have to throw perfectly good food away due to negligence. Understanding the appropriate way to store certain foods is paramount for running a successful kitchen, restaurant or event, particularly if you don’t want to waste money.
4 – Legality & Accountability
When dealing with food, no matter what the situation you always run the risk of people claiming to have suffered food poisoning at your expense, whether true or not.
One of the main reasons why you should have a food safety plan and adhere to it, is that so if in the event that someone does accuse you of giving them food poisoning, you can present your plan and logs of evidence that hygiene, health and safety in the kitchen is something that you take incredibly seriously.
A reliable event catering company, just like any reputable restaurant or hotel, will take all of the necessary precautions to ensure that food safety is adhered to strictly so that nobody will fall ill – and if in the unlikely event that someone accuses them of gross misconduct, they will have all the evidence required to prove that it is highly unlikely that that was the case.
Don’t leave any room for doubt or error, when dealing with food you should be always be on the ball.
