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Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Decrease in food safety training
Publication Date: 25th August 2010
Food businesses are cutting back on food safety and hygiene training, according to a survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).The survey, which took place in the second week of August was sent out to 5000 food safety trainers and training centres.
Around 50 percent of trainers thought the uptake of food safety training by food businesses was being negatively affected by the present economic climate. 70 percent identified 'cost cutting' as the main reason why businesses were not investing in training.
Commenting, David Kidney, CIEH Head of Policy, said:
"This survey is cause for concern and if this trend continues public health could be put at risk - potentially triggering a food poisoning time bomb.
"Proper instruction or training of food handlers in food hygiene is a legal obligation and businesses must ensure that their staff have the skills to ensure the health and wellbeing of the customers they serve.
"The economic downturn has meant many businesses have had to rein in spending, which is understandable, but quality training needs to be seen as an investment which protects your staff, your business and your company's reputation. A food poisoning outbreak can be the death knell for a food business and can have a myriad of consequences from reputational damage to business failure.
"In extreme cases failure to comply with food safety legislation can even result in a prison sentence and/or being prohibited from running a food business in future. In over a quarter of the prosecutions which have led to the business manager being prohibited since January 2009, failure to comply with the legislation on instruction and/or training was one of the offences.
"The growth of cheap online food safety training and training solutions is also on the rise according to our survey, but businesses need to be aware that the information they are receiving may not necessarily be accurate and up-to-date. Anyone can set up a food safety training business online and sell a course to public.
"Make sure the course you choose is fit for your purpose and that you are not wasting your precious resources on cowboy companies."
Food Standards Agency
Tuesday 24 August 2010
More Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top NV Champagne recalled
The Food Standards Agency has issued an updated Allergy Alert, because further bottles of Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top NV Champagne do not mention on their label that the product contains sulphites. This means the product is a possible health risk to anyone who is sensitive to sulphites
BBC News
20 August 2010
Print Two 'giant rats' found in East Midlands factory
An abundant food source can allow rats to grow much larger than normal Two 2ft long rats were caught in a factory in the East Midlands, Rentokil has confirmed.
The pest control agency said the animals were caught within the last four weeks and were double the normal size of a brown rat.
It said access to a plentiful supply of food had allowed the rats to grow to an abnormally large size.
The news emerged following reports in the Sun newspaper that a 30in (76cm) rodent was killed on a Bradford estate.
Rentokil spokesman Malcolm Padley said: "They were both around 2ft and it's fair to say our technicians were very surprised at the size.
"It goes to show that where there's a food source, these rodents will grow big".
There had been suggestions that the animals could be coypu, a plant-eating semi-aquatic rodent originally native to South America.
However, chief executive of the Mammal Society, Marina Pacheco, confirmed this was not the case.
She said the rodents did not have the distinctive orange teeth seen in the species.
A nationwide cull of coypu is thought to have wiped the animals from the wild 20 years ago.
It is illegal to own one unless it is for exhibition or scientific research, in which case it must be licensed
BBC News
4 August 2010 Last updated at 09:49
Meat of cloned cow offspring in UK food chain, FSA says
The FSA says two bulls were born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow in the US
Meat from the offspring of a cloned cow was eaten in the UK last year, the Food Standards Agency has said.
As part of an inquiry into milk from a cow produced from a cloned parent, it identified two bulls born in the UK from embryos of a US cloned cow.
Both bulls were slaughtered but meat from one entered the food chain.
FSA chief Tim Smith said he had "no concerns" about the safety of such milk or meat, but any suppliers would require approval under European law.
The FSA said it had "traced two bulls born in the UK from embryos harvested froma cloned cow in the US".
The first was slaughtered in July 2009 and its meat entered the food chain and would have been eaten. There are unconfirmed reports that the animal came from a farm near Inverness.
The second bull was slaughtered on 27 July 2010, but its meat was stopped from entering the food chain, the agency added.
American biotechnology companies are cloning animals that give high yields of milk and meat to use as breeding stock.
But foodstuffs, including milk, produced from cloned animals must pass a safety evaluation and gain authorisation before they are marketed in Europe and there are moves afoot to bring in a ban across the EU.
UK's Biggest Wasps' Nest Found In Pub Roof
10:45am UK, Tuesday August 03, 2010
Lulu Sinclair, Sky News Online
A pub in Southampton has laid claim to housing thebiggest wasps' nest in Britain.
The size of the wasps' nest was "unprecedented"
The stinging insects had built a home 5ft 3in wide, with the cone height from top to bottom of 4ft 1in.
"It really was a monster," said pest controller Sean Whelan, the unlucky man whowas called in to deal with a construction that housed about half a million wasps.
"Nests usually operate from March to September so they're very unlikely to get to be this size," Mr Whelan told Sky News Online.
"The wasps disperse and bury themselves under about six inches of soil until March when they come out and then build the nest for the queen.
"What we think may have happened this time is that, because of the cold winter, the pub kept its heating on so the wasps didn't realise it was time to move on.
"The size of it for the time of year was unprecedented. They just couldn't have made something this big, this quickly."
Mr Whelan used a telescopic pole to crack open the top of the nest and then squirt the colony with a powerful insecticide.
"It was scary as hell but it is what I am trained for," he said.
Food Standards Agency
Caterers warned on chicken livers
Wednesday 28 July 2010
The Food Standards Agency is reminding caterers to make sure chicken livers are handled hygienically and cooked thoroughly when used in products such as pâté or parfait. This follows a number of outbreaks of campylobacter food poisoning linked with chicken liver products where the livers may have been undercooked
HSE
Frozen food specialist fined after worker loses finger
19th July 2010
A Lincolnshire-based international frozen vegetable supplier has been fined after a man's finger was amputated when his hand was crushed at work.
The incident occurred at Pinguin Food Ltd's site in Boston on 10 February 2009 when the worker tried to straighten some boxes on an automatic palletising machine.
Boston Magistrates' Court heard that although the box loading machine which the man was working on had a perspex guard attached, the employee routinely entered the enclosure while the machinery was running.
While behind the guard, his fingers were caught between a pallet and the conveyor, resulting in his middle finger being amputated from the tip to the first knuckle. He was subsequently off work for six months.
The company was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and it was found a number of employees had been given interlock parts which effectively overrode the safety systems in place and allowed access to the enclosure.
Pinguin Foods UK Ltd, based on Marsh Lane, Riverside Industrial Estate, is part of The Pinguin Group that has eight vegetable production sites in Belgium, France and the UK.
It was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £3,500 at Boston Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.