What is Food Safety?
Table of Contents
Today, I’m going to talk about food safety. Specially what is it?
Food safety is the protection of consumer health and wellbeing by safeguarding food from anything that could cause harm.
In simple words, it’s about handling, preparing, storing, and serving food in a way that reduces the risk of your customers becoming sick. It means protecting food from contamination, which is anything that should not be in the food.
Why is food safety important?
Everyone working with food has a responsibility to protect it and maintain its safety. Ensuring food safety brings many benefits to businesses. These include:
- Happy customers and repeat custom
- A good reputation for your business
- Compliance with food safety laws
- Increased staff morale
- Reduced staff turnover
- A good food hygiene rating
The consequences of ignoring food safety:
If food safety measures are not followed, food poisoning can occur. Since bacteria are invisible to the naked eye, it’s impossible to know if food has been contaminated. This can have disastrous consequences for a food business.
If you’ve experienced food poisoning, you know the symptoms are not pleasant. They often include:
- Stomach pain or cramps
- Diarrhoea
- Feeling sick or being sick
- Fever
- Dehydration
For most people, the effects of food poisoning are not too serious. But it can be life-threatening for certain high-risk groups, including:
- Elderly people
- Pregnant women and nursing mothers
- Babies and very young children
- People with weakened immune systems
Key areas to focus on for food safety:
- Personal hygiene (such as effective hand washing)
- Temperature control
- Safe food storage
- Safe food handling and preparation (i.e. preventing cross-contamination)
- Cooking, reheating food and hot holding food safely to kill harmful bacteria
- Cleaning and disinfection
- Pest control
Remember, food safety is essential for any food business. By making it a priority, you are not only protecting your customers but also keeping your business successful.
FREE CHECKLIST!
- Be prepared for your Food Hygiene Inspection
- Feel confident about achieving a Top Food Hygiene Rating for your business
- Created by Chartered Environmental Health Officer, Natalie Stanton
- Covers the 3 areas an officer will assess during your inspection
Here's how I can help you
Get food safety training from an Environmental Health Officer (EHO).
This is the UK’s first self-taught, online Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene course for Catering that is created and taught by EHO, Natalie Stanton. There are no PowerPoint slides and no monotonous voiceover. In only 2 hours, Natalie guides you through the key aspects of food safety in 13 short, pre-recorded videos.
