Health and safety: Call the pros

Professional Cleaning and You is a new initiative from Johnson Diversey aimed at helping you to keep your pub clean - and to stay inside the law.

Cleanliness is next to profitability for any food business. But recurrent health scares and a greater awareness of food safety in general mean that a systematic approach is increasingly important to help you stay within the the regulations. You have to be squeaky clean in more ways than one.

A new programme launched this summer by Johnson Diversey - the firm that makes products such as Persil, Mr Muscle and Toilet Duck - aims to provide the advice and support you'll need to make the job easier.

Professional Cleaning and You is a kind of club through which licensees can find what they need through an interactive website and it also comprises a work folder, a telephone helpline and regular updates through email, post and telephone.

The package was put together based on research carried out with groups of publicans around the country in summer 2004 plus the expert input of BII consultant Phil Dixon.

"The forums showed that many licensees fear increasing regulation, that they don't understand, for instance, how to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and they want a partner to help them through," says Dave Smith of Johnson Diversey. "That's what our programme aims to be and we hope it will make them feel we understand their business."

Registration is free and publicans who sign up receive a welcome pack, £50 of vouchers to spend on products and access to more in-depth information and advice on the web.

Members can maintain records on line and download the hard copies required by EHOs, access online training modules and get an in-depth insight into what the legislation means to them.

The programme includes information and support on:

• Food safety​
  • How to set up HACCP procedures
  • A checklist to assess your current situation, how you tackle food safety regulations, staff training, personal hygiene, pests, waste disposal, the purchase and delivery of food, storage, preparation and cooking, serving and your cleaning regime
  • Where the checklist identifies weaknesses ways of improving your operation through general management, systems and training are suggested
  • Maintaining systems and keeping records.

Cleaning plans​

• Good practice and organisation
• Matching the product to the job through colour-coded diagrams for each part of the pub
• Cleaning and hygiene record sheets.

Delivery​

• Delivery practices including keeping records, rejecting food, refrigeration and freezer temperatures, good practice
• Safe delivery checklist chart
• Food delivery record sheets.

Temperatures​

• Advice on safe temperatures and keeping records
• Safe fridge chart and tips
• Recommended shelf life table
• Temperature control record sheets.

Training​

• Which staff to train in what
• Training for good food hygiene
• A basic training programme covering food safety, personal hygiene, food preparation, storage and temperature plus a test
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH regulations)
• Training record sheets.

Products & safety​

• Information on Johnson Diversey products
• Recommendations on safe use.

Tips & hints​

• Record keeping
• Disposing of unwanted chemicals
• Hand care
• Efficient dish washing
• Glass hygiene and maintenance plus getting the best from your glasswasher
• Washroom cleaning
• General health and safety including legal responsibilities, accident prevention and risk
  assessments
• 24 steps to a clean room.

To register for Professional Cleaning and You go to www.professionalcleaningandyou.com​ or call 0800 525525 for free.​

New hygiene laws​

Many pubs will have to sharpen up their food safety systems in readiness for tougher hygiene laws, which come into force from January 1, 2006. Catering businesses registered with local authorities will need to demonstrate not just that they prepare food that's fit to eat, but that they record their procedures for making sure of food safety.

If you are only a small business, your systems can be quite simple - but they will still need to conform to the principles of HACCP.

There's nothing like an acronym to make a simple process sound daunting. But HACCP is really only common sense combined with an awareness of what might contaminate the food you serve.

This covers general cleanliness, of both food preparation areas and your staff, the temperatures at which food is stored and cooked, and so on. You probably already take measures to control these. The new regulations, however, require that you keep records of everything you do.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is working with local authorities to help small catering businesses conform to the new legislation and set up food safety systems. Copies of a booklet, called Safer Food, Better Business, are available by calling 0845 606 0667 or emailing sbbqfgnaqneqf@rptebhc.hx.pbz​ or you can get one through your council.

More advice on food safety is available on the FSA website - www.food.gov.uk​