Are Food Safety Certificates More Important Now Than A Generation Ago?
People working with food for public consumption have always been
assumed to have the necessary knowledge of how to serve safe food.
Yet many food industry workers have never in their working lives received proper formal food safety training but have merely followed the practices described or practiced by their mentors or employers.
A modern school of thought could be that today's raw products of food production are far safer than in days gone by and hence formal food safety training is of less importance than would have been the case in generations gone by and yet in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
It is true that in past generations our basic food products were not as protected by modern packaging, processing, preservation and bacterial elimination methods, thus making the safer food assumption appear valid.
However never in the past have our constituents of food production had such a long and varied food chain from initial generation to final consumption.
Pathogenic bacteria whether aerobic or anaerobic multiply over time and the greater the number of processes in a food chain the greater the likelihood of error or mishap.
Raw food materials now made accessible by modern preservation techniques are no longer produced locally for imminent consumption but manufactured in countries sometimes known for poor food handling techniques and many are the recent events where criminal activity for profit has contaminated our food chain in one form or another.
As a result in most instances, raw foods supplied are safer than in the past at the moment of breaking the seal on their packaging, but their history of processing or contamination will catch up with them much sooner than was the case with foods that our parents worked with.
Hence simple food handling practices of days gone by may no longer be sufficient when related to producing food safe for public consumption in this modern world.
This is why the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health have issued their recommended syllabus of training that all food handlers should undergo and refresh on a three year cycle basis.
With financial penalties for serving foods that are injurious to health running into several thousands of pounds and the threat of prison sentences in cases of the extreme it can clearly be seen that:
Food Safety Training to attain a Food Safety Certificate for food handlers is more important now than a generation ago.
Hobson Tarrant
Yet many food industry workers have never in their working lives received proper formal food safety training but have merely followed the practices described or practiced by their mentors or employers.
A modern school of thought could be that today's raw products of food production are far safer than in days gone by and hence formal food safety training is of less importance than would have been the case in generations gone by and yet in reality nothing could be further from the truth.
It is true that in past generations our basic food products were not as protected by modern packaging, processing, preservation and bacterial elimination methods, thus making the safer food assumption appear valid.
However never in the past have our constituents of food production had such a long and varied food chain from initial generation to final consumption.
Pathogenic bacteria whether aerobic or anaerobic multiply over time and the greater the number of processes in a food chain the greater the likelihood of error or mishap.
Raw food materials now made accessible by modern preservation techniques are no longer produced locally for imminent consumption but manufactured in countries sometimes known for poor food handling techniques and many are the recent events where criminal activity for profit has contaminated our food chain in one form or another.
As a result in most instances, raw foods supplied are safer than in the past at the moment of breaking the seal on their packaging, but their history of processing or contamination will catch up with them much sooner than was the case with foods that our parents worked with.
Hence simple food handling practices of days gone by may no longer be sufficient when related to producing food safe for public consumption in this modern world.
This is why the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health have issued their recommended syllabus of training that all food handlers should undergo and refresh on a three year cycle basis.
With financial penalties for serving foods that are injurious to health running into several thousands of pounds and the threat of prison sentences in cases of the extreme it can clearly be seen that:
Food Safety Training to attain a Food Safety Certificate for food handlers is more important now than a generation ago.
Hobson Tarrant
Hobson Tarrant the project development manager for the online
trainer Torchlight Training writes on matters of food safety for the new
http://www.foodsafetycertificatesonline.co.uk which provides registered online Food Safety Certificates starting at only £8.50+vat.
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