New Hygiene Policies for September 2010

While maintaining good standards of hygiene is important for all businesses for some, it is vital. This is particularly important for businesses that look after others such as childcare providers and those that handle food such as restaurants. Accordingly, Simply-docs has created two new hygiene policies (shown on the right).

An implemented and visible hygiene policy is good business practice and can help to maintain the credibility of your business and the confidence of your customers and staff. The penalties for not maintaining good hygiene practices in your business can be severe. For example, certain breaches of the General Food Regulations 2004 can result in a £20,000 fine or two years imprisonment.

Food and Hygiene Policy

If you own a restaurant, cafe, sandwich shop, food preparation business or any other business that prepares, stores or handles food it is crucial that you maintain high standards of food hygiene. You need to be in compliance with the Food Standards Agency recommendations, the Food Hygiene Regulations 2006 and EC Regulations on the hygiene of foodstuffs. Our new Food and Hygiene Policy is a very useful tool in this process. Such food related businesses have a legal requirement to have food safety management procedures in place which demonstrate what the business does to make or sell food that is safe to eat, and these procedures must be written down, kept up to date with any changes to the business and regularly reviewed. The business has a legal requirement to identify potential food safety hazards relevant to the business and then to have put procedures in place to manage these potential hazards.

As you will be aware, the Food Standards Agency monitors food handling standards. A visit from the Food Standards Agency can be random but also in reaction to a complaint and the Agency can issue fines for failure to meet the required standards.

Hygiene Policy for Childcare Provision

Childcare institutions must not only comply with food hygiene legislation but have an additional responsibility to ensure that both staff and children in their care have a clean and hygienic environment and that wherever possible the spread of infection is prevented. Our new Hygiene Policy for Childcare Provision helps businesses to set out clear good hygiene practices for staff. The Hygiene Policy for Childcare Provision should form part of the business’s staff training pack and new intake welcome pack and should be clearly displayed to staff and parents, carers or guardians. If the provision of childcare involves food processing and handling (i.e. cooks, servers) then the Food and Hygiene Policy should also be used.