Catering and food premises safety
Common faults
Accidents in restaurants, sandwich bars, cafes, pubs, take
aways, and many other types of catering businesses are on the
increase.
These may be caused by the use of blunt knives, slipping on wet
floors, burns from heat or cleaning chemicals and such like. When
carrying out a food hygiene inspection owners of food businesses
must consider health and safety as well.
Legislation
The provisions of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 of the European
Parliament on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs, Food Safety Act 1990 and
the Health and Safety at Work 1974 affect catering and food
premises. For information, see the Health and Safety
Executive website.
Common hazards
- no guards on food slicers
- overloading of electric sockets
- obstructed fire extinguishers and blocked exits
- use of casual footwear instead of safety shoes
- lack of washable clothing
- exposed wires
- no internal door handles in walk in-chill rooms
- no diffuser covers over strip lights
- spillages not cleared up
- inadequate ventilation
- poor knife handling and storage
- inaccessible first aid box
- no fire blankets for frying oil fires
- inadequately lit food preparation and storage areas
- cleaning chemical containers with out lids or labels
- brakes not applied to mobile units such as shelving or
refrigerators
- dirty microwave ovens resulting in microwave leakage.
Further information
Free leaflets and information sheets relating to catering are
available from the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) website.