Although it seems an obvious requirement that those handling the nation's food should have received food hygiene training it has only been a UK legal requirement since 1995. That is not to say that the importance of such training had not been officially recognised before, in fact following the Aberdeen Typhoid outbreak of 1964 the Milne Report recommended an improvement in the education of food handlers.
Again, following the Stanley Royd outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in 1984, which resulted in 355 patients of the hospital becoming ill and 19 dying, the Committee of Enquiry stressed the importance of food hygiene training. However the legal requirement for food hygiene training was not introduced until the introduction of the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995.
Strictly speaking, food hygiene training is not the only way of meeting the legal requirement, as food business operators have the choice of providing training OR instruction and supervision. What the regulation actually says is:
The proprietor of a food business shall ensure that food handlers engaged in the food business are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activities.
This is a rather complicated way of saying that everyone working with food must know what they are doing and not put consumers at risk because of their ignorance. To ensure that food handlers have this degree of competence they can either be instructed AND supervised or trained OR receive food hygiene training. In practice local authorities would usually expect anyone running or managing a food business (including those working alone) to have successfully undertaken a food hygiene training course. In cases where a suitably trained supervisor is always on the premises, then other food handlers should have received basic instruction concerning food hygiene but do not have to have completed food hygiene training course themselves.
The nature of food hygiene training has changed since the early courses were introduced by organisation such as the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. In those days there were three levels of food hygiene training: Level 1 was known as Basic Food Hygiene and was a one day course, typically of 6 hours duration, followed by a 30 question multiple choice test. A pass-mark was 20/30. This course was aimed particularly at food handlers dealing with unwrapped foods, in all the food sectors.
The Level 2 food hygiene training course was known as Intermediate Food Hygiene and was a 3-day course for supervisors. The Level 3 course was called Advanced Food Hygiene and was a 5-day course aimed at proprietors, managers and those who wished to become accredited to train others in Basic Food Hygiene.
In recent years the content of the food hygiene training courses has become less generic and now each course is specific to a particular food sector, either catering, retailing or manufacturing.
Current food hygiene training courses now start at a new Level 1 of Food Safety Awareness for either Catering, Retailing or Manufacturing. This is a briefer course than the old Level 1 Basic Food Hygiene Course.
There are Level 2 Awards for Food Safety in Catering, Retailing and Manufacturing, with Level 3 Awards for Food Safety Supervision in Catering, Retailing and Manufacturing.
The Level 4 food hygiene training courses are known as the Award in Managing Food Safety in Catering and the Award in Food Safety Management for Manufacturing. In addition to these courses there are courses specifically designed to train managers and owners to implement and operate HACCP based food safety systems.
So, after perhaps a slow start in the development of food hygiene training there are now courses suitable for the staff and management of all types of food business, hopefully leading to more awareness of the requirements necessary to ensure safe food.
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