Special Report
Food safety in onboard catering
Heather Bone, technical manager Diversey Consulting EMA, talks about the weakest links in the provision of high standards of food preparation and storage
There is no doubt that catering for the onboard travel industry is not easy! People from all over the globe, each with different backgrounds, religious and dietary
restrictions, allergies, and age; coming together in one moving restaurant for a period of time that may vary from minutes to hours and even days if we include the shipping industry. Often storage and preparation areas at the
point of service are size and space restricted; menus are diverse and customer expectations are high. A challenging scenario to say the least! Safe, quality onboard catering relies on high standards of food preparation and storage. The use of HACCP is undoubtedly the most widely accepted mechanism for minimising the risks, because it brings discipline and structure into the food safety assessments and can help you to be logical and thorough in breaking down and avoiding the risks. Support and commitment of senior management is an essential prerequisite during the implementation and maintenance of a HACCP system. One of the weakest links of a Food Safety
Management System (FSMS) is often that during the development and implementation phases of a HACCP based FSMS, full support is provided in terms of time and resources but then the job is seen as completed! In reality, an effective FSMS requires constant review and update; new menus, new ingredient suppliers; new customers; all can have an impact on the documented and implemented system. A second weak link for many companies in the
catering industry is the effectiveness of supplier controls; food safety of the materials that are coming into the business. HACCP’s preventive approach is seen as more cost-effective than end- product testing, but the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, therefore onboard caterers need to ensure that their suppliers are operating to the same high standards they set for themselves. Creating a policy that governs them can help but
Food safety is a matter of time and temperature management
“Onboard caterers need to ensure that their suppliers are operating to the same high standards that they set for themselves”
an alternative approach is to conduct a risk-based assessment matrix of the ingredients and materials that are being delivered. The matrix output can then be used to focus resources where they are needed the most and correspond directly to the suppliers’ determined level of food safety risk. Training is a crucial part in preventing a food
safety incident. Adequate training for all personnel involved in handling, transporting and manipulating food, including those concerned with maintenance, services or cleaning, is essential. What is more difficult is ensuring that the personnel involved in the movement and storage of the food between the supplying facilities and the final onboard location have sufficient food hygiene awareness to know that inappropriate handling
of the goods in terms of storage and temperature management may lead to a food safety incident. At its most basic, food safety is a matter of time
and temperature. Bacteria double every 20 minutes given ideal conditions. Food-borne bacteria are multiplying in protein foods while being transported if temperature is not properly managed. Ensuring that everyone in the supply chain understands these principles and that temperature controls are implemented at all times is absolutely critical. Food safety managers need to ensure that
their food supply chain is operating efficiently and effectively throughout, which means a lot of verification; internal and external audits, microbiological testing, evaluation of temperature monitoring data, etc. Verification is standard practice for many organisations; and more often than not, the verification process, highlights where the weakest links are and this information should be used as the first step to plan for improvement in the future. email:
diversey.consulting@
diversey.com
www.onboardhospitality.com 63
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