Catering and food premises safety: common faults

• Legislation
• Common hazards
• Further information

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 webpage Health and Safety in Catering and Hospitality.

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

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) free leaflets:

• The following HSE webpage lists free leaflets and information sheets relevant to catering Free leaflets - Catering/hospitality.

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