What Is Due Diligence In Food Safety?

Understanding Due Diligence in Food Safety

To understand due diligence in these areas of food safety, we should assess each area in turn to see how food industry workers can apply essential practices that reduce risks across these three areas.

Working diligently requires understanding HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Understanding HACCP is key for anyone working in the food industry. HACCP is a process where workers identify and control key areas of their work that present a risk, and implement measures to mitigate them. We will work closely with the principles of HACCP when addressing due diligence in the food industry.

Cleanliness is a Must for Food Safety.

Keeping surfaces clean is critical for industrial kitchens and food preparation areas. You can ensure safe practices by understanding three potential areas where allergens or contaminants can spread and ways to prevent these risks. They are:

• The use of correctly 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 surfaces to food items and taking preventative measures to reduce the risk can demonstrate due diligence in preventing this contamination. For example, 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 enables you to evaluate the risks associated with the use of D10 and its related risks in the workplace, contributing to your due diligence when working with the substance.

Chopping Boards and Knives

Ensuring the correct chopping boards are used is a way for an employee to be diligent against cross-contamination. The colours used are: 

Staying consistent with chopping board use is considered due diligence for food allergens and cross-contamination. If cross-contamination occurs in your kitchen, the blame may be attributed to the incorrect use of the chopping board system.

Knives also use a similar colour code system. Adhering to colour codes for knives allows kitchen staff to communicate the risks associated with each foodstuff and utensil, reducing the likelihood of possible contamination.

For more information on due diligence with chopping boards, follow this link: Chopping Board Colours: Your Complete Guide from us at HSE Docs.

Due Diligence for Gluten-Free Customers

Some kitchens, especially those with flour for bread or pasta making, should take extra measures to ensure gluten-rich flour doesn’t contaminate surfaces and utensils.

For best practice with gluten-free customers, effective communication is required between the front and back of house, which should be overseen by the restaurant's and/or kitchen managers. The best way to stay diligent with gluten allergies is to:

• alternate gluten-free options available and 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 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 is essential during the passage of food from the kitchen to the customer, specifically indicating which plate is the gluten-free option.

Ensuring that gluten-free environments are not contaminated is essential to the food industry in 2023, and it can only be maintained through due diligence between the front and back of the house.

Surface Cleaners

Using surface cleaners correctly can ensure that kitchen surfaces are transparent, reducing cross-contamination from allergens, bacteria, and viruses.

For best practices, use industrial cleaning chemicals only for their intended purpose at the correct dilution. D10 is an industry standard. However, it is often over-mixed, presenting further risk due to chemical contamination.

The information on how to mix and use chemicals correctly should be displayed on the bottle or pump. Failing that, contact your supplier to learn how to use industrial chemicals correctly and minimise 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 learn more about the effectiveness, hazards, and protocols involved in using surface cleaners, consider our Risk Assessment for D10. The correct use of surface cleaners demonstrates due diligence in combating bacterial growth in your workplace.

Store Food Stuffs Like a Pro.>/h3>

Storage is an area where contaminants can easily spread and harm customers. Fridges, freezers, and dry stores are all areas where food can be introduced and breed bacteria. You could be liable if someone becomes seriously ill due to poor storage practices.

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.

Our Food Hygiene Level 2 Course here at HSEDocs covers temperature guidance and other storage essentials. Completing this course can provide recognised certificates for anyone wanting to demonstrate due diligence in food hygiene within 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 provided by the Food Standards Agency, small businesses can track temperatures, dates, and times for batch-cooked food. This records how food was prepared and leaves a paper trail in case the record needs to be reviewed, such as during an outbreak of food poisoning.

Day Labelling

Adding day labels with reasonable expiry dates should always be practised in an industrial kitchen. Every field on the day label must be completed to provide context for anyone needing access to that food item, ensuring consistent handovers between kitchen staff.

It is also a good use of due diligence to remove these day labels entirely, as they can be breeding grounds for bacteria.

Fridge Storage

Maintaining a top-to-bottom system in your refrigerators is a key area of due diligence in the food industry, as refrigerators are where food spends most of its time while 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 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 some structure is in place, with clearly labelled days 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 visit our blog on Food Safety: Fridge Storage & Maintenance? This blog examines why we store food hierarchically in chillers to prevent cross-contamination.

Chemical Storage

Chemical Storage is a key Critical Control Point if you are trying to improve due diligence in your business. If you experience a chemical spill incident at your workplace, it could lead to slipping hazards or the release of toxic fumes. Always store chemicals away from food items or in a separate room to prevent this. It is also important to store your chemicals in a sealed container. Keeping your chemicals discrete and well-maintained could make a significant difference if you were prosecuted for gross negligence in the event of a serious spill.

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 demonstrates that you are aware of fire hazards throughout the building. A private fire safety official will assess the number of fire extinguishers and the adequacy of your fire alarm system. Having the certificates for your fire alarm and extinguishers demonstrates to customers and 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. A Fire Safety Official or a competent electrician can provide this service.

Key areas to be vigilant about are old, large electronics, such as electric ovens, pizza ovens, refrigerators, 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 them.

Having your units' PAC tested will demonstrate due diligence against these risks and keep everyone involved in their use safe from harm.

Due to the inherent risks involved, a PAT Test should only be carried out by a trained and registered electrician. Your company should have all electrical components tested at regular intervals to ensure they are safe to use.

Ventilation

Adequate ventilation removes 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 with carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

In instances where inadequate ventilation is provided in an industrial kitchen, the Food Standards Agency may not allow the kitchen to open or may close it during an inspection. 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 keep fumes and particulates down in a kitchen environment, is another way employers can be diligent in mitigating smoke inhalation risks in an industrial cooking environment.

Following the practices stated above can help maintain diligence in safety in the food service industry. Adequate training and record-keeping by management can demonstrate to health and safety officials that you are taking the necessary measures to ensure your staff and customers work or dine safely.

At HSEDocs, we offer training and certificates towards Food Hygiene Level 2. 

If you have any further concerns about safety in the food industry, why not conduct a risk assessment to see what measures can be taken to reduce potential risks in the future?

Get in touch with HSEDocs today to discover how our industry-recognised training and certificates can help your staff adhere more diligently to workplace safety standards.