How to... Trade safely in outdoor areas

As a starting point, it’s important to carry out a Risk Assessment to help you prevent and control hazards. There are a lot of misconceptions about Risk Assessments but they are a legal requirement for most businesses.

Your Risk Assessment must identify hazards and risks and stipulate how those hazards are going to be controlled, i.e. reduced so that accidents causing injuries or near misses are avoided.

1. Look around the trading area and its perimeter and think through what could cause injury. For instance, could people trip over uneven paving stones, get hit by low level branches, slip on very wet grass or paving, cut themselves on jagged furniture, etc?
2. Once you have identified a hazard you need to think through what sort of injury it could cause – broken bones, cuts, sprains, etc. These will be the risks – the consequences of the hazards. 
3. Once you’ve identified the hazards and risks, consider what you need to do to eliminate or reduce the risk of injury. These are your control measures. 
4. Pay particular attention to play equipment and areas.
5. Record your risk assessment and the control measures taken.

External areas​
Outside areas come under the Health & Safety at Work legislation and must be kept in just as safe a condition as the insides of premises. Hazards need to be identified in any external areas used by customers, and also areas used by staff, delivery drivers and other tradesmen. Any that could cause an accident, especially trip hazards, needs to be repaired.

In car parks, you need to check for uneven surfaces, signage, lighting issues and traffic management. If someone falls in your car park and sustains an injury because of a hazard you could be liable.

Trees on your premises should be routinely checked just like anything else and so you need to monitor them. Your garden should be subject to the same Risk Assessment principles as the rest of your premises.

Children’s safety​
Broadly speaking, children are more likely to be using outside areas and they may not understand the hazards – more duty of care is needed to protect children. Daily visual checks are required prior to opening the play area.

It is important to remember:

1. Children are more susceptible to accidents and injury and so they need to be protected to a higher level than adults.
2. Regularly check equipment and play areas.
3. Keep records.
4. Carry out risk assessments.

…but remember children do have accidents – it isn’t always your fault!

BBQs​
With longer evenings and warmer weather, BBQs may be used in premises gardens and outdoor spaces to great effect. Although BBQ are a great sales opportunity, they do pose safety risks (both food safety and wider health and safety issues). It is important to plan your BBQ to ensure all health and safety and food safety risks have been minimised. Make sure both you and your staff are familiar with the information. Here are a few tips:

Storage:​ Foods should be stored under refrigeration until required for preparation / cooking / serving in order to minimise bacterial growth. All foods should be within their use-by dates and checks should be made before they are taken to the barbecue area.

Preparation: ​Items such as salads and other cold items will require covering and will need to be kept cold or routinely checked and discarded if they are left at ambient for too long – ie. 2 hours.

Cooking: ​It is essential that all food is cooked thoroughly – no rare burgers – even if requested by the customer. If you are going to barbecue joints of meat or poultry, it is recommended that you use your temperature probe to ensure the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 75^o​C (82^o​C in Scotland) during cooking. These probes should be disinfected before use.

If BBQs are not properly controlled there tends to be an uneven spread of heat, which can also be influenced by the size and thickness of the food item. Where possible you should consider using a gas-fired barbeque to ensure the consistent output of heat and the even cooking of food.

Cross contamination:​ Raw and cooked foods should be kept separate to prevent any risk of cross-contamination. It is necessary that separate utensils e.g. tongs are provided for placing raw products onto the barbeque and another pair used for the removal of cooked foods. Thorough hand washing is vital in-between handling raw and cooked foods.

Personal hygiene & cleanliness:​ Any person working at a barbeque must ensure that they maintain impeccable standards of personal hygiene - after all they are on show whilst preparing food for your customers! Chefs and any other persons who are engaged in the handling of open food must wear suitable clean and washable over-clothing. Hand washing provisions must be made available for food handlers at the wash hand basin.

Remember that good procedures alone will not prevent the possibility of accidents and mistakes – it is vital to ensure that all members of staff receive sufficient training.

Pat Perry is executive chairman of health and safety consultants Perry Scott Nash​​