Food Safety Training - One Way to Reduce the Risk of Getting Closed

66 food businesses were served with closure orders by the authorities in 2011. That is a sad record and hopefully the end of a sad and depressing development that has started when things turned sour in 2008. Interestingly, no food sector was spared: restaurants, pubs, hotels, processing... businesses in all sectors were found not to be fit for trading by Environmental Health Officers or inspectors from other authorities.
Regular and qualified food safety training helps employees and business owners to keep the business afloat and to avoid closure.

Avoiding closure is not difficult: food business must ensure hygienic conditions in their food storage and processing/preparation facilities at all times. Interestingly enough, closure orders were served on businesses that blatantly disregarded simple food hygiene rules: staff were allowed to sleep in food storage areas, food was allowed to rot on the shelves, on occasions, pest control was poor. None of these closure orders was unavoidable, unpredictable or issued by overzealous, unjust inspectors.

One lesson can be learned from this: don't do anything in a professional kitchen that you wouldn't do at home. Basic and simple things like regular and thorough cleaning or safe storing of food and utensil greatly help to maintain a hygienic food preparation environment. Obviously, some things happen regularly in private homes that must never happen in a professional kitchen: use of out-of-date foods, disregarding of cross-contamination risks, poor hand-washing. All these poor hygiene practices are offences and can trigger the serving of a closure order or even prosecution.

If you feel you need help with your hygiene procedures, if things are starting to get out of hand or if you feel you have lost control over your food preparation: Get professional help! Employing a qualified food safety consultant is much cheaper than having to suffer through the hell of food safety law enforcement: annoyed inspectors, annoyed customers, bad press, the loss of business for a number of days, weeks or months...

MKRMS Food Safety provides assistance: We train, inspect, analyse and provide support to food businesses. We like to be called before things get out of hand, but we are very good at putting things right again as well.

A first step on the path to good food safety is training: MKRMS Food Safety offers EHOA-certified food safety training. Courses are held monthly. The next course will take place on the 24th/25th January in Westpoint Business Park, Wexford. Contact Matthias on 086 - 8355546.