Food Safety
Food hygiene is really important to us here at Food Friends. We aim to develop trust and accountability within our community, going above and beyond to ensure that our meal sharing initiative is as safe as possible.
Please find details below of measures that we currently have in place to ensure that our volunteers can safely cook, share and care for someone in their community.
We receive support from an external food hygiene consultant, Sarah Howarth, regarding understanding and managing food safety risks. We review our risk assessment every 12 months and as required when there are changes which have potential to impact our food safety plan.
We provide all volunteers with food hygiene guidance developed by Sarah Howarth during their induction.
Volunteers sign to confirm they have read the food hygiene advice given on induction in their volunteer agreement.
All volunteers are given a A5 RSPH Level 2 Food Safety Booklet. All volunteers are offered a funded Level 2 Food Hygiene Course if they lack confidence or need additional support implementing this guidance.
Volunteers are provided with an insulated carrier and ice pack to aid the safe transportation of their meal.
Volunteers are offered fridge thermometers if they do not have one at home, which clearly indicates food must be stored at target 5C or below.
We ask volunteers to deliver meals no older than 2 days old from production. We provide volunteers with food labels to document this date of production, reheat guidance and use by guidance.
Food Friends looking to receive meals through our initiative are asked about allergies and intolerances when we visit them at home. The 14 food allergens are read out so that the Food Friend is prompted to think carefully about passing any allergy and intolerance information on. Food Friends sign an allergy declaration to confirm information is correct and this signed declaration is then saved to their file.
All allergies and intolerances are dealt with by exception in line with our allergy statement below.
Food Friends cannot guarantee that the meals delivered through our meal sharing initiative are allergen-free. This is because they are cooked up with love and care in a volunteer cooks kitchen where there will always be a cross contamination risk.
We have public liability insurance for our meal sharing initiative.
Please remember our volunteer cooks are only sharing meals with 1-2 Food Friends, therefore there is no wider public health risk.