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Health and Safety: - Food Hygiene (Including procedure for reporting food poisoning)

 

Policy statement

At Westside Pre-School, we provide and/or serve food for children on the following basis:

  • Health snacks.

  • Packed lunches.

We maintain the highest possible food hygiene standards with regard to the purchase, storage, preparation and serving of food.

 

Procedures

  • The person in charge and the person responsible for food preparation understand the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP).  The basis for this is risk assessment as is applies to the purchase, storage, preparation and serving of food to prevent growth of bacteria and food contamination.

  • All staff at Westside Pre-School have attended Food Hygiene training.

  • The person responsible for food preparation and serving carries out daily opening and closing checks on the kitchen to ensure standards are met consistently.

  • We use reliable suppliers for the food we purchase.

  • Food is stored at correct temperatures and is checked to ensure it is in-date and not subject to contamination by pests, rodents or mould.

  • Parents are advised to place an ice pack within their child’s packed lunch box; un-refrigerated food is served to children within 4 hours of preparation at home.

  • Food preparation areas are cleaned before use as well as after use.

  • All surfaces are clean and non-porous.

  • All utensils, crockery etc. are clean and stored appropriately.

  • Waste food is disposed of daily.

  • Cleaning materials and other dangerous materials are stored out of children's reach.

  • Children do not have unsupervised access to the kitchen.

 

When children take part in cooking activities, they:

  • are always supervised

  • understand the importance of hand washing and simple hygiene rules

  • are kept away from hot surfaces and hot water; and do not have unsupervised access to electrical equipment such as blenders etc.

 

Reporting of food poisoning

Food poisoning can occur for a number of reasons; not all cases of sickness or diarrhoea are as a result of food poisoning and not all cases of sickness or diarrhoea are reportable.

Where children and/or adults have been diagnosed by a GP or hospital doctor to be suffering from food poisoning and where it seems possible that the source of the outbreak is within the setting, the manager will contact the Environmental Health Department and the Health Protection Agency, to report the outbreak and will comply with any investigation.

If the food poisoning is identified as a notifiable disease under the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1988 the setting will report the matter to Ofsted.

 

 

Legal Framework

  • Regulation (EC) 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the hygiene of foodstuffs

 

Further guidance

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