Is your menu really safe?

Does your menu contain:

• Cooked meats and poultry
• Cooked meat products (gravy, stock, pate, and such like)
• Milk, cream, artificial cream, custards and dairy produce
• Cooked eggs and products made with fresh shelled eggs (mayonnaise, tiramisu, meringues, and such like)
• Shellfish (mussels, oysters, etc) and other seafoods
• Cooked rice
• Salads, vegetables and fruit that need no further preparation.

If it does some of these ingredients need:

• Strict temperature control (during delivery, correct freezing, thawing, refrigeration, cooking, display and service)
• Protection from germs (bacteria, viruses, and such like), chemicals (cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, sanitisers, food additives), and anything likely to injure or harm your customers or employees. 

Important: Protection starts with the producers, your suppliers through to all stages in your business

When your ingredients are being delivered you could get an unwanted deliveries of:

• Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, E.coli, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenese. 
  See Food poisoning symptoms and causes.
• poisons in tuna, mackerel, sardines, pilchards, herring, anchovies and salmon
• peanuts, walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, hazelnuts pistachio, shellfish, and sesame seeds (and other foods likely to cause an allergic reaction, including oils used in dressings or for cooking. 
  See Food allergies)
• cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, excess food additives and preservatives
• hair, glass, metal, packaging, nails and other physical items

Take care that none of the above get into your ingredients at any stage of your business?

Warning: If you ignore food hygiene and food safety laws you stand to loose

• your customers 
• your reputation

You may even face:

• prosecution or civil action
• higher insurance premiums. 

Is avoiding your food hygiene management responsibilities really worth the risk?