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CH89-Food Hygiene Policy

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Registration Number: {{org_field_registration_no}}

Food Hygiene Policy

1. Purpose

This policy outlines how {{org_field_name}} ensures the safe procurement, handling, storage, preparation and service of food within the care home. Its purpose is to protect the health, safety and welfare of people we support, staff and visitors by preventing foodborne illness, allergen-related harm and contamination, and by ensuring that food is provided safely and in accordance with individual nutritional, hydration, dietary, cultural, religious and clinical requirements.

The policy supports compliance with applicable food safety legislation and the requirements applying to registered care providers in England, including the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

The policy ensures that:

2. Scope

This policy applies to all employees involved in the handling, preparation, and service of food, including kitchen staff, care workers assisting with meals, and external food suppliers. It also covers the storage and disposal of food waste. All people we support and their families should be informed about the food safety measures in place to maintain high standards of hygiene and prevent health risks.

3. Legal and Regulatory Compliance

{{org_field_name}} will comply with all food safety and care regulatory requirements applicable to its activities. These include, where applicable:

The registered provider and registered manager must also have regard to current Care Quality Commission guidance on compliance with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Under Regulation 14, the nutritional and hydration needs of people using the service must be met. This includes providing suitable and nutritious food and hydration adequate to sustain life and good health, prescribed dietary supplements or parenteral nutrition where applicable, reasonable dietary requirements arising from preferences or religious or cultural background, and appropriate support to eat and drink.

Individual nutrition and hydration assessments must identify relevant allergies, intolerances, dietary requirements, risks and support needs. Where a person requires a specific diet, food and drink must be provided in accordance with their current assessment, care plan and any advice or prescription provided by an appropriate healthcare professional.

Under Regulation 12, risks associated with the provision of food, drink and support with eating and drinking must be assessed and all reasonably practicable measures must be taken to reduce those risks.

Under Regulation 17, effective systems and processes must be maintained to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service and to assess, monitor and mitigate risks. Food safety records, checks, audits and corrective actions must therefore be sufficiently complete and accurate to demonstrate that food safety controls are operating effectively.

4. Food Hygiene Management

4.1. Food Procurement and Storage

All food must be sourced from approved and reputable suppliers who comply with food safety laws. Upon delivery, food must be checked for freshness, temperature control, and packaging integrity. Any damaged, spoiled, or out-of-date food must be immediately rejected and disposed of safely.

Refrigerated food must be stored at 0°C – 5°C, and frozen food at -18°C or lower. Dry food storage areas must be clean, well-ventilated, and free from pests. Raw and cooked foods must be stored separately to prevent cross-contamination. A first-in, first-out (FIFO) stock rotation system must be followed to ensure food is used before its expiration date.

4.2. Kitchen and Food Preparation Standards

All food handlers must maintain a high standard of personal hygiene and must wash their hands effectively at appropriate times, including before handling ready-to-eat food, after handling raw food, after using the toilet, after handling waste, after cleaning tasks and whenever contamination may have occurred.

Suitable clean protective clothing must be worn where this is necessary to protect food from contamination. Hair must be effectively controlled where necessary. Disposable gloves must not be used as a substitute for effective hand hygiene and, where gloves are used, they must be changed whenever necessary to prevent cross-contamination.

Raw food and ready-to-eat food must be handled and prepared in a way that prevents cross-contamination. Separate equipment, utensils, chopping boards or other effective controls must be used where necessary. Colour-coded equipment may be used as part of the home’s food safety management system.

Food-contact surfaces, utensils and equipment must be maintained in a clean condition and must be effectively cleaned and, where necessary, disinfected at appropriate intervals and following contamination.

Food must be cooked sufficiently to ensure that it is safe to eat. The home’s documented food safety management system must specify validated cooking controls appropriate to the food being prepared.

Where temperature is used to demonstrate adequate cooking, an appropriate validated time and temperature combination must be achieved. Unless an alternative validated method applies, the home’s standard cooking control will be:

Alternative validated combinations may be used where supported by recognised Food Standards Agency guidance, manufacturer’s validated instructions or another appropriate food safety control.

Cooking temperatures must be checked using a clean and appropriately maintained food thermometer where temperature monitoring forms part of the food safety management system. Temperature probes must be cleaned and disinfected appropriately before and after use to prevent cross-contamination.

Food must not be served where required cooking controls have not been achieved unless an approved corrective action within the food safety management system has first made the food safe.

4.3. Fitness to Work for Food Handlers

No person who is suffering from, or is known or suspected to be carrying, an illness or condition that may be transmitted through food may be permitted to handle food or enter a food-handling area where there is a risk of contaminating food.

Food handlers must immediately report to their line manager any illness or symptoms that may present a food safety risk, including:

A member of staff experiencing diarrhoea or vomiting must be excluded from food-handling duties and food-handling areas and must not return to those duties until they have been free from symptoms for at least 48 hours, or for a longer period where this is required following medical, public health or environmental health advice.

Where a member of staff has an infected wound or skin lesion, the manager must assess whether it can be completely and securely covered with suitable waterproof protection. Where contamination cannot be adequately prevented, the employee must not undertake food-handling duties.

The manager must seek advice from the relevant healthcare professional, UK Health Security Agency health protection team or local authority environmental health service where necessary.

4.4. Serving and Handling Food

Food requiring hot holding must normally be maintained at 63°C or above, subject to any lawful time-limited exception permitted by applicable food hygiene requirements and the home’s food safety management system.

Chilled food that requires temperature control must be maintained within legally permitted temperature limits. The home will normally operate refrigerators at 5°C or below as its food safety control in order to provide an appropriate safety margin below the legal maximum applicable to chilled foods. Any failure to maintain required temperature controls must be managed in accordance with the corrective actions contained within the food safety management system.

Meals must be handled and served in a manner that prevents contamination and preserves food safety and quality.

Staff assisting people to eat and drink must follow appropriate hand hygiene requirements before providing support. Where staff providing personal care also assist with meals, they must ensure that hands are effectively washed and that any contaminated protective clothing is removed or replaced before handling or serving food.

The dignity, preferences, independence and assessed needs of people we support must be respected. Staff must provide the level of assistance specified in the person’s current care plan, including appropriate equipment, adapted utensils, positioning, prompting, encouragement or direct assistance where required.

Food and drink must be presented in a form that is safe and suitable for the individual. Any prescribed or assessed texture modification, fluid consistency, dietary restriction or other clinical requirement must be followed.

Accurate allergen information must be available for food provided by the home. People must be given information about the presence of any of the 14 allergens regulated by food law where this is required.

Staff serving food must have access to current information about each person’s known food allergies, intolerances and dietary restrictions and must follow the controls specified in the person’s care plan and the home’s allergen-management procedures.

A verbal statement that a food is safe for a person with an allergy must not be made unless the member of staff has checked accurate and current ingredient and allergen information.

4.5. Cleaning and Waste Disposal

A daily cleaning schedule must be followed to maintain hygiene in food preparation and serving areas. All surfaces, equipment, and utensils must be cleaned and disinfected after use. Refrigerators and freezers should be cleaned weekly, while deep cleaning of the kitchen must be done at least once a month.

Food waste must be disposed of properly to prevent contamination and pest infestation. Bins must have tight-fitting lids, be emptied regularly, and be cleaned frequently. Waste must be segregated into general waste, recycling, and food waste.

4.6. Staff Training, Instruction, Supervision and Competence

All staff who handle, prepare, store or serve food must receive appropriate supervision, instruction and/or training in food hygiene matters that is commensurate with their work activities.

Training and instruction must be sufficient to enable staff to perform their duties safely and must include those areas relevant to the individual’s role, including:

Staff responsible for developing, maintaining or operating the home’s procedures based on HACCP principles must receive adequate training in the application of HACCP principles appropriate to their responsibilities.

Formal qualifications, including Level 2 or Level 3 food safety qualifications, may be used by {{org_field_name}} to demonstrate competence where appropriate. However, the manager must ensure that training, instruction, supervision and competence are appropriate to the person’s actual duties rather than relying solely upon possession of a qualification.

Training needs and staff competence must be assessed when a person begins duties involving food and reviewed thereafter at appropriate intervals and whenever:

Refresher training or further instruction must be provided whenever necessary to maintain competence.

Appropriate records of food hygiene training, instruction and competency assessment must be maintained.

4.7. Managing Allergies and Special Diets

Food allergies and intolerances must be treated as a food safety risk.

The home must maintain accurate and current information about known food allergies, intolerances and other dietary restrictions affecting each person we support. This information must be reflected in the person’s care plan and must be readily accessible to staff responsible for ordering, preparing, serving or assisting with food.

Food allergen controls must include the 14 allergens specified by food law:

For non-prepacked food provided by the home, accurate information about the presence of any of the 14 regulated allergens used as ingredients must be available and communicated in accordance with food information legislation.

Where the home produces prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food to which the relevant legislation applies, the package or label must display:

Ingredient and allergen information must be checked whenever a recipe, ingredient, supplier or manufactured product changes.

Food intended for a person with a food allergy must be prepared and served using controls that minimise the risk of allergen cross-contact. This must include appropriate cleaning of work areas and equipment and, where necessary following risk assessment, separation of ingredients, equipment, utensils, storage or preparation activities.

Staff must not assume that removing a visible allergenic ingredient from a prepared meal makes the meal safe for a person with an allergy.

Where the home cannot safely meet a person’s allergy or dietary requirement, this must be escalated immediately to the registered manager or responsible senior person and appropriate specialist advice must be obtained.

Menus and meals must also meet assessed individual dietary requirements, which may include requirements associated with health conditions, prescribed diets, texture modification, vegetarian or vegan choices, ethical beliefs and religious or cultural requirements.

Where a specific diet or nutritional intervention has been prescribed or recommended by an appropriate healthcare professional, the current instructions must be followed and incorporated into the person’s care plan.

4.8. Food Safety Management System and HACCP

{{org_field_name}} must implement and maintain a documented food safety management system based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.

The system may be based on the Food Standards Agency’s Safer Food, Better Business approach or another suitable documented system, provided that it adequately reflects the food activities and risks within the home.

The food safety management system must include procedures for:

The system must address, where applicable:

The food safety management system must be reviewed whenever there is a significant change to food operations, following a relevant food safety incident, where monitoring identifies that controls are ineffective, or where changes in legislation or authoritative guidance make review necessary.

4.9. Food Business Registration

{{org_field_name}} must ensure that the care home’s food operation is registered as a food business establishment with the relevant local authority as required by food law.

Where a new food business operation is being established, or where the provider takes over an existing food business establishment, registration must be completed with the relevant local authority at least 28 days before food operations begin, where required.

The registered manager or other person formally designated by the provider must ensure that the food business registration details remain accurate and that the relevant local authority is notified of significant changes to the food business, including changes requiring notification under applicable food registration requirements.

Evidence of registration and relevant correspondence with the local authority environmental health service must be retained and made available when required.

4.10. Monitoring and Compliance

The registered manager must ensure that responsibility for day-to-day oversight of food safety is clearly allocated to a person or persons with appropriate knowledge, training and competence.

The home must monitor the operation of its food safety management system and retain records sufficient to demonstrate that relevant food safety controls are being followed.

Records must be maintained as appropriate to the home’s food operations and HACCP-based system. These may include:

Where monitoring identifies that a required food safety control has not been achieved, immediate action must be taken in accordance with the home’s food safety management system. Food must not be served where its safety cannot be established.

Food safety governance arrangements must enable {{org_field_name}} to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of food provision and to identify, assess and mitigate risks to people we support.

Food safety incidents, suspected food poisoning, significant allergen incidents, contamination incidents and relevant product withdrawals or recalls must be acted upon promptly. The registered manager or delegated competent person must determine whether notification or referral is required to the relevant local authority environmental health service, UK Health Security Agency, Care Quality Commission or another relevant body in accordance with the circumstances and applicable notification requirements.

All food safety incidents must be documented and investigated to establish the cause, identify any affected people or food, implement immediate controls and determine whether changes are required to prevent recurrence.

Where an incident also meets the criteria for another statutory notification or regulatory duty, including a CQC notification or the statutory duty of candour, that requirement must be followed in accordance with the home’s relevant policy.

The effectiveness of food safety systems must be reviewed through the provider’s governance arrangements, and identified deficiencies must result in documented corrective action and follow-up.

5. Related Policies

This policy should be read alongside the following policies:

6. Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed annually or sooner if changes in legislation, regulatory requirements, or operational needs occur. Updates will be made to reflect the latest CQC guidance, food safety regulations, and industry best practices.

Responsible Person: {{org_field_registered_manager_first_name}} {{org_field_registered_manager_last_name}}
Reviewed on: {{last_update_date}}
Next Review Date: {{next_review_date}}
Copyright © {{current_year}} – {{org_field_name}}. All rights reserved.

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