Hospitals and care homes fail food safety inspections

Food Standards Agency (FSA) data shows that care homes fail to meet food hygiene standards more than any other type of care provider, with more than 200 residential, nursing and care homes receiving low grades at their latest food safety inspections.

This was closely followed by nurseries, child care centres, playgroups and out-of-school care providers, more than 200 of which failed to meet hygiene standards, as well as a handful of hospices, homeless shelters, churches and youth centres.

The FSA ranks all food providers, giving them a score of zero to five. Zero means the establishment “urgently requires improvement”, one or two is considered a failing grade, and three to five is satisfactory.

An overwhelming majority (more than 98%) of hospitals and other care providers achieve a food hygiene rating of three or better. Despite this overall success, Michael Harding, a food hygiene rating scheme support officer at the FSA, said any instance of a care organisation receiving a low score was “a cause for concern”, due to the fact that vulnerable people, including children, older people and people who are ill, were more likely to use their services.

Zero ratings are given out for issues including mouldy and expired food found in fridges, evidence of cross-contamination between raw and cooked food, lack of hand-washing facilities, poor cooking equipment and no food safety management documentation.

Businesses awarded a zero rating are either immediately shut down or given 28 days to tackle urgent issues, with visits to check that work has been carried out. They can then either pay £160 to be rescored or wait until their next scheduled assessment, usually about six months later, to potentially be given a new score.

Essential Food Safety Management is the resource that will provide advice and guidance,if you are starting out or already running a catering business. This full colour book,based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) will help you comply with food hygiene regulations by showing you how to make food safely and run all aspects of your business.

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Massive fines and prison sentences for food business operators

Tougher punishments came into force last year February, which carry substantial fines for businesses and custodial sentences for individuals who are convicted of breaking food safety regulations.

What is happening-The most striking change in health and safety enforcement since 1974,is set to revolutionise and dramatically increase punishment for food safety and hygiene offences. These new sentencing guidelines could possibly send you to prison and end your business due to a massive fine now based on your turnover.

Why is it happening- Up to now, there has been a lack of consistency in sentencing food safety offenders. In addition, there was concern that fines, failed to reflect the seriousness of the harm caused and/or the culpability of the offender. The new guidelines provide a much more detailed calculation mechanism to determine the amount of fines and prison sentences.

They will mean significantly higher fines for companies found guilty of food safety and food hygiene offences.

The new guidelines will use the turnover of the offender to identify the starting point of the fine. The offences can range from low to very high, low indicating that the failings were minor and occurred as an isolated incident, to very high which indicates a deliberate breach of /or flagrant disregard for food safety law.

Food safety offences may include issues such as :

• Poor kitchen hygiene practices
• Selling unsafe food
• Not applying HACCP to your business
• Causing an outbreak of e.coli food poisoning
• Incorrect labelling and advertising of food
• Inadequate paper trail, traceability and records
• Not following food allergy laws in your business.

The aggravating factor will increase the seriousness of the offence and increase the level of fine and length of custodial sentence.

The fines and custodial sentences for organisations and individuals for breaching the food safety and food hygiene regulations- The court is required  to focus on the organisation's annual turnover to reach a starting point for a fine, offenders will be expected to provide comprehensive accounts for the last 3 years. Where such information is not provided, the court may infer that the offender can pay any fine imposed.

Depending on the severity of the offence and the size of turnover of the company,fines can range from £200 to £3 million. For small companies whose turnover is not more that £2 million,the fine ranges from £200 to £120,000. The fine bands start at 25% of weekly income,rising to a maximum of 700%.

Aggravating factors such as poor food safety, poor hygiene can increase the level of the fine. The profitability of an operation will be relevant, if it has a large profit margin,the fine may be adjusted upward.

The fine will be sufficiently substantial to have a real economic impact which will bring home to both management and shareholders the need to operate within food safety regulation.

Custodial sentences and community orders: depending on the severity of the offence and harm caused, the sentences for individuals can range from a conditional discharge to 18 months custody. Community orders which are also part of the punishment,can range from 40 to 300 hours of unpaid work.

‘New guidelines will greatly increase fines across the board…..  More worryingly,many more directors,managers and junior employees will be handed custodial sentences due to a significantly lower threshold for imprisonment.’- Dr Simon Joyston-Bechal is a director at Turnstone Law. He is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading health and safety lawyers.

What you need to do: It is absolutely necessary that business owners,supervisors and managers ensure their staff have competent food safety training and should install  adequate safety management systems and procedures.

• Make sure your food safety procedures are up to date -use Good Food,Good Business,starting and running a successful catering business
• All risk assessments must be  completed and control measures implemented- use Kitchen Safety Record 2017 Yearbook or 1 Year diary (which is non dated)
• Ensure your documented policies and procedures are  in place- use Kitchen Safety Record 2017 Yearbook or 1 Year diary
• Ensure employees are given adequate food safety training-use Good Food,Good Business,starting and running a successful catering business.
• Make sure you have adequate measures in place to record and review the efficiency of your current food safety management systems.- use Essential Food Safety Management: The Complete Food Safety Management System
• Protect yourself by investing in training for yourself and your staff, Use our Best selling Food Safety management books which are top ten best sellers on Amazon, to train your staff properly and keep legally compliant records. Get your training manual and record book, put it to use immediately,and not when things inevitably go wrong otherwise you will face a fine based on your turnover and possibly a custodial sentence.
  
  




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Kitchen Safety Record 1 Year Diary: Week to view food safety management diary

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Essential Food Safety Management is the resource that will provide advice and guidance,if you are starting out or already running a catering business. This full colour book,based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) will help you comply with food hygiene regulations by showing you how to make food safely and run all aspects of your business.

Get your copy here