From restaurants and hotels to supermarkets and meat shops, any sort of business that deals with food has to keep its customers’ health and safety in mind. It’s not enough to just have a loose set of guidelines that the staff can choose to follow when they’re storing products, cooking a dish, or mixing drinks. It is necessary to have a food safety management system (FSMS) in place.
Food Safety Management System Defined
A Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is a structured method of handling food to guarantee that it is safe to consume. There are three core elements to an FSMS:
Procedures for compliance — These are the steps that a business takes to comply with food industry regulations and relevant legislation.
Risks, hazards, and controls — Much like other health and safety policies, an FSMS has to identify the risks and hazards that come with handling food then provide ways to either remove or mitigate these risks and hazards with controls.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point — HACCP is an international methodology for preparing and dealing with food hazards. It is the industry standard and the foundation for every FSMS. Basically, it is a series of steps that identifies and analyses food hazards, introduces controls, documents its implementation, and provides corrections and improvements.
The Importance of Having a Food Safety Management System
The primary reason for having a food safety management system is to make sure that your staff and customers don’t fall sick to foodborne illnesses. Whether it’s in the proper handling of raw fish or keeping the kitchen spick and span, an FSMS lays down all the necessary procedures to prevent contaminants from spreading across facilities, tools, and food products.
Suppliers, distributors, retailers, and food service businesses all have to follow food safety regulations. For legal compliance, such organisations must have an FSMS based on HACCP principles according to Regulation (EC) 852/2004. Food safety inspections will look for a written document of your FSMS to understand how your business practises food hygiene in the workplace.
Lastly, an FSMS is a means to safeguard your brand’s reputation. If you have done your due diligence with creating an FSMS and recording the process, you can avoid the bad press that comes with a poor customer experience. In cases where somehow someone does happen to get sick within your establishment, you can take the appropriate legal action to protect your business.
Creating a Food Safety Management System
A comprehensive food safety management system takes time and effort to develop, but the process itself can be condensed into six simple steps. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get started creating a food safety management system for your business.
1: Identify objectives and scope
You need to know what problems or areas for improvement your business may have regarding the handling of food. Are there risks and hazards that are being ignored? Have customers left a bad review? Once you know what needs to be addressed, you also have to define the scope of what your FSMS can handle and what should be prioritised.
2: Establish policy
To start, your policy statement should formally state your business’ commitment to food safety. What follows is the detailing of your operations, legal obligations, and roles and responsibilities to have accountability. You should also include procedures for customer complaints, food-related incidents, food fraud, and when food has been declared unsafe through internal or external review.
3: Develop hazard controls
Each step in the process of delivering a product to your customer needs to be accounted for hazards:
- Supplier production and transport
- Food storage and preparation
- Food service and display
- Staff hygiene
- Cleaning and maintenance of facilities and equipment
- Waste management
1: Prepare for EHO inspection
You must always be ready for an environmental health officer (EHO) to visit your establishment for an inspection, as they have the right to enter and inspect your premises at any reasonable time without an appointment. A pre-inspection checklist that covers everything from staff training to cleaning routines to facility upkeep will help you be prepared.
2: Set up a complaints procedure
A customer may leave a complaint about the quality of your food, the cleanliness of your property, or the behaviour of your staff. Your FSMS must have a procedure for processing complaints to protect your business from legal action. Include in the procedure the person responsible for dealing with the complaint, how you record complaints, how you investigate complaints, and what measures you need to take to address complaints.
3: Record and review
Every procedure and action taken for food safety has to be properly documented. Such documents will be necessary to measure the effectiveness of your FSMS, as there is always room for improvement. Food safety regulations also get updated, requiring a thorough review of your policy and procedures. Authorities will also ask for documentation for inspections and legal reasons.
The Four C’s of Food Safety
As part of the goal of creating a food safety management system to improve food safety, you can reinforce this initiative by understanding the four C’s of food safety.
Cleaning
A clean business establishment goes a long way in preventing the spread of bacteria, viruses, and other contaminants that cause foodborne illnesses. Take great care cleaning food contact surfaces, tools, raw ingredients, and facilities. Instil discipline in your staff to follow hygiene protocols such as wearing their kitchen uniforms and washing hands with soap before and after handling food.
Cooking
Food that is cooked incorrectly doesn’t just taste bad, as it can make people sick. Cooking staff should strictly follow prescribed preparation procedures such as target temperatures and times to avoid under or overcooking. Food should be evenly cooked and served hot. If food has to be stored then served later, reheat it.
Chilling
Storing food in refrigerators and freezers is necessary to slow down the reproduction of pathogens that spoil food. It is of vital importance that the temperature is low enough to achieve the desired chilling effect that prevents spoiling. The recommended temperature is 5℃, while the legal requirement in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is 8℃ or below.
Cross-contamination
Bacteria can be spread from food to food, equipment to food, and surfaces to food, resulting in cross-contamination. On top of maintaining cleanliness in the areas and personal hygiene procedures where food is handled, raw food should be stored and handled in separate spaces from cooked food with separate equipment. Regular and thorough sanitising must be done in areas where both types of food have to be handled.
Professional Advice for Your Food Safety Management System
It’s a long and on-going process to achieve and maintain food safety at work, with dire consequences if the system fails. For your peace of mind, The Health & Safety Dept can advise you in creating a food safety management system and handle the arduous tasks of inspecting your property, providing reports, and making sure your procedures are updated and legally compliant. Contact us today to get advice from one of our food safety experts.
How To Write An HACCP Plan
The Food Standard Agency (FSA) estimates around 2.4 million cases of foodborne illness occur in the UK every year, costing the country up to £9 billion annually. Practising food safety is therefore imperative to minimising the risk of such widespread damage. Given the...
Which Food Safety Hazards Result From Poor Waste Control?
For any type of business that serves food, good service goes beyond giving customers a delicious and filling meal. Food directly impacts people’s health, so businesses like restaurants, bars, and cafes have a responsibility to practise food safety. Food waste...
