Places are still available on the Basic Food Hygiene Course in the Ashdown Park Hotel, Gorey, Co. Wexford on the 6th May 2009. The cost of this course is only €150.00 per participant. This includes a printed training manual, lunch and refreshments.
The ourse covers the following topics:
* Food Safety and the Law
* Microbiology of Foods
* Personal Hygiene and Food Handler Illness
* Hygienic Food Storage and Handling
* Food Preparation
* Cooking and Cooling/Re-heating of Foods
* Safe Serving and Delivering Foods
* Cleaning and Sanitation
* Introduction to Principles and Objectives of HACCP
I am looking forward to welcoming participants from your company to this course. Don't let this opportunity for training pass. Book your places on this course today by ringing: 053-917 08 50 or 086 - 835 55 46.
More information can be found here: MKRMS Basic Food Hygiene
Purchase the training manual here: MKRMS Basic Food Hygiene Training Manual (allow 10 days for delivery)
Monitoring of Drinking Water Supply Must be High Priority for Food Businesses
The newest figures that were released on the state of the drinking water supply in Ireland are alarming: 5% of public and about 1/3 of private water supply schemes were contaminated with E. coli at least once in 2007. This suggests that in food businesses the annual sampling of drinking water from private sources as required by I.S. 340:2007 and I.S. 341:2007 might not be sufficient. Especially in rural areas, where private water supplies might become contaminated with pathogen organisms from spreading of natural fertilisers, such as unprocessed animal slurries, water testing should be carried out regularly at much shorter intervals.
Operators of private drinking water schemes must take their responsibility for public health very seriously and keep their supplies free from pathogen contamination. The fact that more than 30% of all private group scheme supplies monitored in 2007 tested positive for E. coli at least once is extremely worrying. Not even the fact that only 5% of the population depend on these private schemes can help to put this findings into a perspective that would make them acceptable. The rate of serious contamination of private supplies exceeded those of public supplies nearly 10-fold (11% of all private group water schemes were found to be contaminated with high levels of E. coli at least once during 2007).
Local authorities would be better advised to acknowledge their shortfalls in this sensitive area of public safety instead of constantly suggesting high standards in the Irish public drinking water supply had already been achieved. The standard of drinking water safety in Ireland should not be accepted as 'high' when test results show that in 2007 samples at 11 sources in the public water supply networks (1.2%) were contaminated with serious levels (more then 20cfu per 100 ml) of E. coli bacteria (legal limit 0cfu/100 ml, ingestion of 10 organisms or more can cause severe illness). Samples drawn at another another 5% of publicly administered sources indicated the presence of E. coli above the legal limit (The EPA Report states that 52 public water sources were contaminated with E. coli at least once in 2007 (page 15)). In an area that is as closely related to public health as drinking water, even a small error margin is a luxury that cannot be tolerated. Here, the aim must be to supply water to the public that is 100% safe. The fact that England and Wales are able to control their drinking water supplies much more effectively, highlights the shortfalls of the Irish water supplies system even further.
Read this article that was published in the Irish Times on the 23rd April 2009 for additional information.
Get the EPA report here.
Operators of private drinking water schemes must take their responsibility for public health very seriously and keep their supplies free from pathogen contamination. The fact that more than 30% of all private group scheme supplies monitored in 2007 tested positive for E. coli at least once is extremely worrying. Not even the fact that only 5% of the population depend on these private schemes can help to put this findings into a perspective that would make them acceptable. The rate of serious contamination of private supplies exceeded those of public supplies nearly 10-fold (11% of all private group water schemes were found to be contaminated with high levels of E. coli at least once during 2007).
Local authorities would be better advised to acknowledge their shortfalls in this sensitive area of public safety instead of constantly suggesting high standards in the Irish public drinking water supply had already been achieved. The standard of drinking water safety in Ireland should not be accepted as 'high' when test results show that in 2007 samples at 11 sources in the public water supply networks (1.2%) were contaminated with serious levels (more then 20cfu per 100 ml) of E. coli bacteria (legal limit 0cfu/100 ml, ingestion of 10 organisms or more can cause severe illness). Samples drawn at another another 5% of publicly administered sources indicated the presence of E. coli above the legal limit (The EPA Report states that 52 public water sources were contaminated with E. coli at least once in 2007 (page 15)). In an area that is as closely related to public health as drinking water, even a small error margin is a luxury that cannot be tolerated. Here, the aim must be to supply water to the public that is 100% safe. The fact that England and Wales are able to control their drinking water supplies much more effectively, highlights the shortfalls of the Irish water supplies system even further.
Read this article that was published in the Irish Times on the 23rd April 2009 for additional information.
Get the EPA report here.
SPECIAL SUMMER OFFER
FOOD SAFETY ESSENTIALS: 1/2-day training course that covers the essentials of food hygiene: Bacteria, Hand Washing, Safe Food Handling, Cleaning...
Suitable for new and casual employees in food businesses or to refresh essential food hygiene knowledge.
Regular price: € 70.00 per person
Special offer: Send two or more delegates for € 50.00 per person!
Offer valid May 2009 to September 2009 for all MKRMS Food Safety Food Safety Essentials Courses.
See course and booking info here!
Do not put your Business on the Spot this Easter.
Dear Business Owners,
it is a great thing to be able to entertain and feed the masses at such great occasions like Easter. But please, do not risk your reputation or (even worse) your business by being too careless about Food Safety.
Staff handling food are one of the most important source of food poisoning outbreaks. About 50% of the human population are healthy carriers of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that is not only infamously dubbed the 'Hospital Superbug', but that is also an important foodborne pathogen. Healthy humans carry this bacteria in their noses, throats ears or the back of their heads. They do not show any signs or symptoms of disease. If ready-to-eat food is contaminated with this bacteria, which produces a toxin that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, a food poisoning outbreak is likely! Especially older and very young people (exactly those we all wish to be extra safe and well protected) are at risk of suffering food poisoning from that cold lunch or lovely dessert they chose from your menu.
Educate your food handlers in personal hygiene procedures and enforce a stringent illness reporting policy in your business to avoid pathogen contamination of the foods you serve from food handlers that either do not observe the simplest of personal hygiene rules or from food handlers that work with food despite having just suffered from symproms of foodborne illness or infection.
The best way of educating staff is to train them regularly: MKRMS Food Safety offers a range of food safety training courses for food handlers at all levels.
The next available course will be held in Gorey, Co. Wexford on the 22nd April 2009, starting at 9.30 a.m. I hope to see loads of eager participants at this course, because only by educating those who might become the source of food poisoning outbreaks can we effectively avoid our customers becoming sick from the food they ate in our restaurant or from our Deli counter.
For more information log on to http://www.mkrms.com. Page now also available in German.
it is a great thing to be able to entertain and feed the masses at such great occasions like Easter. But please, do not risk your reputation or (even worse) your business by being too careless about Food Safety.
Staff handling food are one of the most important source of food poisoning outbreaks. About 50% of the human population are healthy carriers of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that is not only infamously dubbed the 'Hospital Superbug', but that is also an important foodborne pathogen. Healthy humans carry this bacteria in their noses, throats ears or the back of their heads. They do not show any signs or symptoms of disease. If ready-to-eat food is contaminated with this bacteria, which produces a toxin that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, a food poisoning outbreak is likely! Especially older and very young people (exactly those we all wish to be extra safe and well protected) are at risk of suffering food poisoning from that cold lunch or lovely dessert they chose from your menu.
Educate your food handlers in personal hygiene procedures and enforce a stringent illness reporting policy in your business to avoid pathogen contamination of the foods you serve from food handlers that either do not observe the simplest of personal hygiene rules or from food handlers that work with food despite having just suffered from symproms of foodborne illness or infection.
The best way of educating staff is to train them regularly: MKRMS Food Safety offers a range of food safety training courses for food handlers at all levels.
The next available course will be held in Gorey, Co. Wexford on the 22nd April 2009, starting at 9.30 a.m. I hope to see loads of eager participants at this course, because only by educating those who might become the source of food poisoning outbreaks can we effectively avoid our customers becoming sick from the food they ate in our restaurant or from our Deli counter.
For more information log on to http://www.mkrms.com. Page now also available in German.
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