Info zone – Health risks at barbecues
Sarah Jones, consultant atthe CMi food hygiene agency, examines the potential health and safety risks from serving barbecues to guests.
The problem
A pub manageress wants to hold a series of outdoor barbecues during the summer, but she is concerned about reports of a local pub being associated with a food-poisoning outbreak after a similar event.
She wants to know what to do to ensure the safety of the food, and prevent the possibility of food-poisoning her customers.
The law
The safety of food is governed by the Food Safety Act 1990, which makes it an offence to "sell food that is unfit for people to eat" or to "cause food to be dangerous to health". Businesses may have a defence if they can demonstrate due diligence.
The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 set out the basic hygiene principles in relation to food handling, employees, premises and practices.
The Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995 set out the temperature control requirements for food. They also identify the foods that are covered, the temperatures and exemptions.
Expert advice
Food poisoning is likely to occur when food preparation and handling practices lead to food becoming contaminated with harmful bacteria such as salmonella, listeria or E coli. Injury can also be caused if foreign bodies - including pests such as flies and wasps, or airborne debris such as dust and grass - contaminate the food during service.
The manageress needs to assess the risks that are presented by the barbecue and how these must be managed to ensure that food safety is not jeopardised. In the event that customers are made ill or injured by food served at the barbecue, the manageress may use the due-diligence defence to prove that everything possible was done to prevent this from occurring.
This defence is defined in the Food Safety Act and requires managers to prove that they had a suitable system in place to control food safety, based on the principles of hazard analysis. This must be supported by training of employees and completion of records to demonstrate that controls were in place and checks performed.
Where problems are found, action must be taken to resolve and control potential food safety risks.
Beware!
Failure to serve food that is safe can lead to serious consequences, including:
- Prosecution by the local environmental health department.
- Closure of business, where hygiene or food safety standards present an imminent risk to health.
- Proprietors may be prohibited from running a food business.
- Civil claims for personal injury - increases in numbers of claims and amounts awarded are being seen. Magistrates can impose fines of up to £20,000 or sentences of six months in prison per offence. In the higher courts, fines can be unlimited and prison terms can last up to two years.
Check list
- Review the food safety controls in place and implement others as needed.
- Remember to look at documentation, such as the hazard analysis, and at work instructions - including recipes, cooking practices, records and training.
- Ensure that suitable equipment and utensils are provided and that employees understand how these should be used.
- Ensure that suitable equipment for temperature control is available.
- Provide employees with appropriate food safety and hygiene training.
- Consider how food will be served.
- Review the physical contamination risks that may be present.
- Review the cross-contamination risks.
- Review the toilet, hand-washing and equipment-cleaning facilities available.
- Documentation and records will allow the manageress to show the precautions put in place to minimise food safety risks, which will help show due diligence.
Contact
CMi Consulting 01993 885616
duncan.goodwin@cmi-plc.com
Food Standards Agency 020 7276 8000
www.food.gov.uk
