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Food Hygiene and Safety in Domiciliary Care (Scotland) Policy

This policy is intended to set out the values, principles and procedures underpinning this care at home agency’s approach to food hygiene, which apply when its staff are involved in the preparation and serving of food as part of a personal plan and written agreement. The policy is written in line with the national health and social care standards set out in My Support, My Life, which aim for high-quality experiences in all aspects of a person’s care and support. The policy should be used with reference to the agency’s policy on Infection Control and Cleanliness in Care at Home (Scotland).

Policy Statement

This care at home agency recognises that where it helps people who use the services with the buying, cooking, storing, preparing or serving of food, it has a duty to ensure that all people who use the services are protected from food-related illness by the adoption of high standards of food safety and hygiene.

Procedures

1. In all cases, where food is to be prepared in the home of a person receiving care, a preliminary risk assessment of the available food preparation and storage facilities is carried out.
2. Potential changes or improvements or changes to the food preparation facilities might be discussed with the person or their family prior to food preparation taking place.
3. If it is assessed that the conditions for food preparation would prevent the achievement of the national care standard for eating well or basic standards of food safety and hygiene cannot be met, the agency will discuss the situation with the person receiving care, their representatives and the other agencies involved so that alternative methods of food provision can be sought.
4. Care staff must keep all food preparation areas, storage areas and serving areas clean while they are using them. All tools and equipment such as knives, utensils and chopping boards must also be cleaned regularly during the cooking process.
5. Adequate sanitary and handwashing facilities should be available within the kitchen, including a supply of (preferably liquid) soap and paper towels for hand drying. All care staff must wash their hands before and after handling foodstuffs. (See also Infection Control and Cleanliness in Care at Home (Scotland) Policy.)
6. All fruit and vegetables to be cooked or served must be washed before use, except where they have been pre-washed as indicated on the packaging.
7. Everyone in a food handling area must maintain a high level of personal cleanliness and food handlers must wear suitable clean and, where appropriate, protective clothing.
8. Staff preparing food should take all reasonable, practical steps to avoid the risk of contamination of food or ingredients.
9. Food storage areas should protect food against external sources of contamination such as pests.
10. Food handlers must receive adequate supervision, instruction and training in food hygiene.
11. When serving food, all staff should scrupulously observe appropriate hygiene standards.
12. Suspected outbreaks of food-related illness involving people who use the services and care staff should be reported immediately to the person or staff member’s GP and if required to the local Infection Control Team responsible for prevention and management of local healthcare-associated infections in the area.
13. Any member of care staff who becomes ill while handling food should stop work at once and report to their line manager/supervisor. Care staff involved in food handling who are ill should see their GP and should only return to work when their GP states that they are safe to do so.

In addition, care staff must:

1. always wash their hands after visiting the lavatory
2. ensure that all food stored in the refrigerator is covered and adequately chilled
3. ensure the thorough cooking and reheating of all meat, especially poultry
4. ensure that deep-frozen food is thawed before cooking (especially important when using a microwave oven)
5. be aware of the risk of Salmonella infection associated with foods containing uncooked eggs, such as mayonnaise and certain puddings
6. wash hands after handling raw meat or eggs, particularly before handling other foods
7. never reuse utensils with which raw eggs or meat have been prepared without first washing them with hot water and detergent
8. never allow juices from raw meat to come into contact with other foods (cooked food and uncooked food should not be stored together)
9. avoid serving raw eggs (or uncooked foods made from them) to people, who could be vulnerable to a food-related infectious illness as a result of eating them (eggs should be cooked until yolk and white are reasonably hard).

Training

All home care staff involved in the provision of food to people who use the services are appropriately trained and assessed to ensure that their catering skills and infection control techniques are of an acceptable standard.

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Responsible Person: {{org_field_registered_manager_first_name}} {{org_field_registered_manager_last_name}}

Reviewed on: {{last_update_date}}

Next review date: this policy is reviewed annually (every 12 months). When needed, this policy is also updated in response to changes in legislation, regulation, best practices, or organisational changes.

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