We planned a week end event to raise money - healthcare premises in the garden - a BBQ - Run by staff but with full risk assessments in place. Temperature checks, good hygiene etc, in fact good HACCP. Unfortunately our catering department ( no input from them) have now said we cannot have a BBQ due to the risk of a patient eating it and their 5 star rating being affected.

Am I losing the plot.

SBH

The 5 Star Rating System is a Food Hygiene Rating System from the Food Standards Agency, but the inspections & awards are typically by the local authority Environmental Health Department.

In our workplace, the restaurant kitchen etc has a 5 Star Rating, and we do have BBQ during lunch time occasionally, weather permitting. Obviously, it is not a health care setting with vunreable people.

http://ratings.food.gov.uk/

There is deatiled information in the links to the above

Hmm, yes, have to agree with AK and others here; if you have HACCP and apply it correctly there's not a lot can go wrong. And what's it got to do with catering anyway? Surely the nurses/managers would have the last say?

On the subject of LA star ratings (no, not the Hollywood ones, the others), at my last place we had a few places get 5 stars, in fact I think all but two did. However we had a couple of things that made us go for an external consultancy to do proper food safety audits. Now some of our place got scores in the mid-to high 90s (percentages), but others, which had been awarded 5 stars by the LA, scored somewhere in the mid-50s. So what does that say about LA star ratings' especially given that some of the non-conformities were quite fundamental, such as storing uncovered meat on the top shelf of the fridge and keeping high-risk food at the wrong temperature for quite long times. These were healthcare premises serving very vulnerable people.

Never ever eat at anywhere that gets less than 5 stars is what I learnt, and even then it may not be all that good,

John

Four or so years ago I supported the introduction of occasional barbecues at hundreds of local authority schools. My role was H&S not food safety, but I worked together with the HACCP manager and we had no real problems making this work. The team we trialled with had to do a bit of planning to decide how each control would be achieved but it wasn't complicated, and hugely welcomed once rolled out.

The catering staff enjoyed it all just as much as the clients - my main worry wasn't food safety it was designing the layout to keep kids away from hot stuff!

Good luck

“I've just been told that we could not hold a CSR event (litter picking etc in a nature reserve) because of H&S”- who wields the name of H&S in your organisation? Health and Safety has become one of those “it means what I want it to mean phrases” and can be used to close down arguments etc. Similar to “national security”, “law and order”, “politically correct” etc

I was told that I had banned Christmas decorations in our head office due to "Health & Safety". What I'd actually said was not to put holly sprigs directly on to the light bulbs (old incandescent types) on the wall uplighters.

I also apparently banned the use of bleach, never found out how that one came about though.

I'd be preparing a detailed H&S audit of the canteen area for next week ;-))

Tells me that spot checks are spot checks and that circumstances can change. If they didn't then you wouldn't get repeat periodic visits...

Although, being less flippant, EHO's will have varying skill levels and time pressures and they will make mistakes. Hence why you have a right to reply on low scores....ironically I doubt anyone complains about the high scores.

Only if the organisation allows the Catering Department to be in control of the site.

Having seen the standard of some premises that have been issued 5 star ratings, I really wouldn't be too concerned about having or not having it.