CART What Is Due Diligence In Food Safety?
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What Is Due Diligence In Food Safety?
Work can often be dangerous. To protect their workers, and others, employers are often asked to take ‘due diligence’ when working in potentially dangerous situations to aid in reducing the associated risks. But what exactly is ‘due diligence’ and what are the legal implications if due diligence isn’t met within the food industry?
What is due diligence in food safety? ‘Due diligence’ is a term used legally and informally to refer to the basic practices one should undertake to reduce risks and prevent harm. If you show to have followed due processes and have been diligent with your approach to risks, then your actions will be viewed favourably from the perspective of Health and Safety Officials should something go wrong.
Why Should We Practice Due Diligence in Food Safety?
The food industry is unique because food acts as a breeding ground for bacteria which can spread quickly. These bacterial spreads can’t be seen. It is therefore key that food safety measures are practised according to predefined safety protocols and principles to keep food preparation sites safe.
However, it is not only bacteria that present risks in an industrial kitchen. Due to the high speed and demanding work that kitchen workers undertake in their day-to-day activities, many other risks become apparent. This is often due to other poor working conditions for the staff, dining conditions for the customers or approach to food storage. It is in these areas that employees and employers should be most diligent to help reduce risks:
- Surfaces
- Storage
- Fire, Electrical or Ventilation
To understand due diligence in each of these areas of food safety, we should assess each in turn to see how food industry workers can apply important practices which reduce risks across these 3 areas.
Working diligently requires an understanding of HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Understanding HACCP is key for anyone working in the food industry. HACCP is where workers identify and control key areas of their work that present a risk, and implement measures to reduce risks in these areas. We will be working closely with the principles of HACCP when addressing due diligence for the food industry.
Keeping surfaces clean is critical for industrial kitchens and food preparation areas. You can ensure safe practices by understanding 3 potential areas where allergens or contaminants can spread, with ways in which you can prevent these risks. They are:
- the use of correct coloured chopping boards
- the proper use of gluten-free equipment and preparation areas
- the correct use of surface cleaners such as D10
Understanding how contamination can spread from surface to food items, and taking preventative measures to reduce the risk, can show due diligence in preventing this contamination. Taking the steps to ensure that the correct chopping boards are being used and cleaned between uses can show diligence against these risks.
Follow this link for a D10 Risk Assessment. This assessment allows you to assess the risks involved with the use of D10 and its associated risks in the workplace, and it would add towards your due diligence when working with the substance.
Chopping Boards and Knives
Ensuring the correct chopping boards are used is a way in which an employee can be diligent against cross-contamination. The colours used are:
| Food Category | Colour Chopping Board |
| Raw Meat & Poultry | Red |
| Raw Fish | Blue |
| Cooked Meat & Fish | Yellow |
| Washed Fruit & Vegetables | Green |
| Unwashed Vegetables | Brown |
| Dairy & Bakery Items | White |
| Anti-Allergen Foods | Purple |
Staying consistent with chopping board use is considered due diligence for food allergens and cross-contamination. If it is found that cross-contamination has occurred in your kitchen, the blame may be placed on incorrect usage of the chopping board system.
Knives also use a similar colour code system. Adhering to the colour codes with knives allows kitchen staff to communicate the risks associated with each foodstuff to each utensil, reducing possible contamination events.
For more information on due diligence with chopping boards, follow this link on Chopping Board Colours: Your Complete Guide from us here at HSE Docs.
Due Diligence for Gluten-Free Customers
Some kitchens, especially those working with flour for bread or pasta making, ought to take extra measures to ensure gluten-rich flour doesn’t contaminate surfaces and utensils.
For best practice with gluten-free customers, good communication is required between the front and back of house which should be overseen by the manager of the restaurant and/or kitchen. The best way to stay diligent with gluten allergies should require:
- alternate gluten-free options available and clearly marked on the menu;
- alternate options are known to the front-of-house staff (with clearly displayed gluten-free options in a preparation area or in a staff handout);
- a structured and understandable way in which staff can communicate a gluten-free order to the kitchen staff through their POS system;
- suitable questioning as to whether the guests have any allergies when booking and on arrival;
- a set of knives and a chopping board for gluten-free products are stored in a closed container (this may extend to rolling pins or any instrument used for gluten-bearing and non-gluten-bearing food);
- clear communication during the passage of food between the kitchen and customer as to which plate is the gluten-free option.
Ensuring that gluten-free environments aren’t contaminated is essential to the food industry in 2023 and it is only through due diligence between the front and back of house that it can be maintained.
Surface Cleaners
Ensuring that surfaces in your kitchen are clear is key to reducing cross-contamination from allergens or bacteria and viruses. This can be ensured with the correct use of surface cleaners.
For best practices, only use industrial cleaning chemicals for their intended use at the correct dilution. D10 is an industry-standard, however, it is often over-mixed, which then presents further risk due to chemical contamination.
Finding out how to mix and use chemicals correctly should be displayed on the bottle or pump. Failing that, contact your supplier to find out how to correctly use industrial chemicals and reduce the risks they present. This also applies to the contact time the surface cleaner has with the surface. Each cleaning product will come with a suggested surface contact time that should be met to allow the product to be fully utilised.
To find out more about the effectiveness, hazards and protocols involved when using surface cleaners, consider our Risk Assessment for D10. The correct use of surface cleaners can show due diligence in fighting bacterial growth in your workplace.
Storage is an area where contaminants can easily spread and cause harm to customers. Fridges, freezers and dry stores are all areas where food can introduce and breed bacteria. If someone should become seriously ill as a result of poor storage practices, then you could be at fault.
Practising due diligence with food storage should be a large part of a kitchen worker's day as storing items correctly can vastly reduce possible future risks. Most importantly, labelling and record keeping of food cooking times, temperatures and dates should be followed.
Temperature guidance, as well as other storage essentials, are covered in our Food Hygiene Level 2 Course here at HSEDocs. Completing this course costs only £4.99 and can provide recognised certificates for anyone wanting to show due diligence with food hygiene in a commercial kitchen.
Record Keeping
Keeping a record of all cooking times and temperatures is key to due diligence in food safety. Using the Safer Food, Better Business pack that is provided by the Food Standard Agency, small businesses can track temperatures, dates and times for batch-cooked food. This keeps a record of how food was prepared and leaves a paper trail should the record need to be reviewed (such as an outbreak of food poisoning).
Day Labelling
Adding day labels with reasonable expiry dates should always be practised in an industrial kitchen. It is key to fill out every field on the day label to give context to anyone who might need to access that food item, making hand-overs between kitchen staff consistent.
It is also a good use of due diligence to fully remove these day labels as they can themselves be a breeding ground for bacteria.
Fridge Storage
Keeping a top-to-bottom system in your fridges is a key area of due diligence in the food industry, as fridges are where food spends most of its time whilst in storage.
Making sure that your fridge conforms to the following system means that contaminants will be less likely to drip down from above and cause cross-contamination:
- Ready To Eat (dairy, baked goods, cooked meat and fish)
- Washed (washed fruit and vegetables)
- Unwashed (unwashed vegetables)
- Raw (meat, fish, and other ‘raw’ items like eggs)
If an incident of severe food poisoning occurs at your business, or you are due a visit from the Food Standards Agency, your fridges will likely be a key area for inspection. Ensuring that there is some structure in place, with day labelling and proper storage containers will go a long way towards being seen as diligent by food safety officials.
For an in-depth read on everything fridge related, why not jump over to our blog on Food Safety: Fridge Storage & Maintenance? In this blog, we look at why we store foods hierarchically in chillers to prevent cross-contamination.
Chemical Storage
Chemical Storage is a key Critical Control Point if you are trying to improve on due diligence in your business. If you have an incident of chemical spillage at your place of work, this could lead to slipping hazards or possible toxic fumes being released. To prevent this, be sure to always store chemicals away from food items - or in a different room altogether. It is also important to store your chemicals in a sealed container. Keeping your chemicals discrete and well-maintained could make a difference if you were to be prosecuted due to gross negligence should a serious spill occur.
Maintaining good fire safety standards in your business could be life-saving. Likewise, providing adequate canopies in your kitchen, provided with good ventilation will show that you understand the risks involved in emergencies where staff need to act quickly.
Fire Safety]
Ensuring good fire extinguisher placement in your workplace shows that you are conscious of fire hazards across the entire building. The number of fire extinguishers and the adequacy of your fire alarm system will be assessed by a private Fire Safety Official. Having the certificates for your fire alarm and extinguishers shows not only customers but also any official who may want to review your fire safety protocol.
PAT Testing Electrical Equipment
The most effective way to comply with the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 is to PAT test all electrical equipment to ensure these devices are safe. This service can be provided by a Fire Safety Official or competent electrician.
Key areas to be vigilant are old, large electronics such as electric ovens, pizza ovens, fridges and hand dryers. If these pieces of equipment have been moved recently, the wiring may have become damaged in transit and short to the metal exterior of the unit. In these cases, the large current needed to run these units may directly lead to serious harm or even death of the person using it.
Having your units PAC tested will show due diligence against these risks, and keep everyone involved in their use, safe from harm.
A PAT Test should only be carried out by a trained and registered electrician due to the inherent risks involved. Your company should have all electrical components tested at regular intervals to ensure all are safe to use.
Ventilation
Effective ventilation is key to removing hot air and fumes from an industrial kitchen. Small ventilation canopies might not be able to extract fumes from a large gas stove, which will fill a kitchen up with carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas.
In instances where inadequate ventilation is provided in an industrial kitchen, the kitchen won’t be allowed to open or may be closed on inspection by the Food Standards Agency. The law states that employers must…
“...ensure there is adequate make-up air for gas-fired and solid fuel appliances, the lack of which can lead to an accumulation of combustion products, such as carbon monoxide."
Maintaining kitchen extraction units, which help to keep fumes and particulates down in a kitchen environment, is another way in which employers can be diligent against smoke inhalation risks in an industrial cooking environment.
Staying diligent with safety in the food service industry can be maintained by following the practices stated above. Adequate training and record keeping by management can show health and safety officials that you are taking the necessary measures to ensure your staff and customers are working or dining safely.
Here at HSEDocs, we offer training for and certificates towards Food Hygiene Level 2.
you have any further concerns with safety in the food industry, why not conduct a risk assessment of these concerns, to see what measures can be taken to reduce further potential risks in future?
Get in touch with HSEDocs today to see how our industry-recognised training and certificates can help your staff become more diligent with workplace safety standards.