Why Food Safety Level 3 Is Essential in Hospitality Businesses

The hotel and catering industry is dynamic, offering various benefits to those wanting to work there. This endeavour lets you meet new people, travel to different countries, and advance your career. It also allows you to cook and serve delicious food. 

However, succeeding in this industry goes beyond offering friendly service and elegant food presentation. You must also train your staff to observe food safety level 3 to ensure optimal service and consumers’ overall well-being. This step is especially true due to COVID-19 and the measures to stop the spread. 

If you want to remain competitive and professional in this lucrative sector, this article will explain the significance of food safety level 3 in hospitality organisations. 

What Is a Food Safety Plan?

This essential document is a set of steps and regulations a business puts in place to ensure that food is clean and safe. A food safety plan helps manage food production to protect consumers from harm. 

What Does Safe Food Handling Entail?

Hospitality establishments can ensure safe food handling by checking their food is safe to eat, of the quality claimed, and not misleadingly packaged, labelled, or marketed. You should also track the source of your food through “food traceability” records. 

If you notice unsafe food, remove it and complete an incident report. From there, notify people of the reason for withdrawing food using a poster or leaflet. In contrast, if you sell food directly to the public, display your food hygiene rating.

What Is a HACCP Food Protection Plan?

The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation is a European food safety guideline that mandates food service companies to evaluate the potential risks of food contamination. They must then establish control measures to prevent such risks and have a plan to handle any possible incidents.

How to Create a HACCP Food Control Plan

The HACCP plan helps ensure food safety by identifying and addressing hazards during production. Companies must create plans by identifying and monitoring critical control points (CCPs) to prevent or reduce risks. They must also regularly check the document and keep the records for inspection. 

Moreover, your business can ensure safe food handling by creating and regularly updating a HACCP plan that includes food hazards, critical control points, and corrective actions. Consider digitising the process to ensure all teams use the same plan and receive updates automatically.

4 Hygiene and Food Safety Level 3 Regulations the Catering Sector Should Follow

After defining the food safety and food protection plan, this section will enumerate four essential hygiene and food safety regulations all organisations in the catering industry must follow. 

1. Cleanliness and Disinfection 

You must sanitise all surfaces that come in contact with food daily, like floors, countertops, and all used utensils. You should also clean utensils before and after use and disinfect devices like refrigerators and extractor hoods weekly. Moreover, staff hygiene is crucial in schools, hospitals, and companies, especially in contract catering situations.

2. Food Handling Rules

Food safety depends on those who handle it, and training is crucial to prevent contamination. You can download hospitality training software that allows for customised and updated training modules and progress tracking to ensure employees know how to handle food safely.

3. Food Traceability Regulations

Food traceability regulations require detailed recording of the origin and route of food to ensure safety. Restaurant inventory management solutions can digitise this information to comply with regulations, provide transparency for consumers, and enable real-time monitoring and updates.

4. Allergen Labelling 

All employees handling food must know about allergens to ensure safe food handling and compliance with regulations like Natasha’s Law. They should also clearly label them on food products and menus. 

Preparing Safe and Delicious Food

Although your business may have delicious food, you can’t have a good reputation without ensuring the dishes’ safety. You can protect your image and gain customers by enrolling your staff in food safety training courses and using reliable restaurant inventory management solutions. 

If your establishment needs professional food safety training, hire Envesca! Thousands of businesses have trusted us to train and support their teams. Enquire now to learn more about our training courses!