3. The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a number of businesses moving to a takeaway
model.
This webinar provides guidance on key food and health & safety requirements for the
provision of a takeaway service.
&
Introduces you to the guidance document produced by Food Alert.
Introduction
5. Food Safety
Food Preparation
• Food should be prepared in a safe and hygienic manner. Follow your HACCP/Food Safety Procedures.
• Suppliers may be affected.
• Where possible food should be cooked/reheated to order.
• Follow usual guidelines for preventing cross contamination - keep ready to eat foods separate from
raw/unwashed foods.
• Frequent & enhanced cleaning and sanitising of all surfaces and food/condiment containers is essential.
• Have a designated clean area for prepared meals to be stored whilst awaiting delivery.
• Do not allow customers to serve their own condiments.
6. Food Safety
Food Preparation
• Continue to monitor and record due diligence temperature records as normal, such as:
• incoming deliveries
• fridges & freezer temperatures
• cooking/reheating temperatures
• bulk cooking and cooling
• hot & cold holding etc.
• Use your usual due diligence forms or the Food Alert COVID – 19 Takeaway Daily Checks.
7. Food Safety
Personal Hygiene
• Ensure all food handlers wash their hands
regularly with hot water and soap for at least
20 seconds.
• Ensure soap and hand towels are fully
stocked and provide hand sanitiser as an
additional control after hand washing where
possible.
• Encourage all staff to adopt social distancing
by keeping 2 metres apart where possible.
8. Food Safety
Personal Hygiene
• All staff need to be checked daily to ensure they aren’t showing any relevant coronavirus symptoms
(fever, persistent cough etc.). If so, they need to be immediately sent home as per the self-isolation
guidance from Public Health England (PHE).
• The 48 hour exclusion rule still applies for non-coronavirus sickness and diarrhoea symptoms.
9. Food Safety
Allergens
• Continue to follow the allergen controls and procedures you have in place in order to prevent
against possible cross contamination.
• Ensure allergen information is accurate and up to date and can be provided to customers where
required regardless of how they place their order.
• Check the ingredients lists where you have purchased similar/new ingredients from new suppliers.
• If you have added new menu items ensure you review the allergy information.
• Consider publishing allergen information online for customers.
10. Food Safety
Allergens
• Ask customers if they have any food allergies or intolerances prior to taking their order. If
customers are ordering online ensure there is an area for them to note their allergies/intolerances
information.
• Keep records of any orders where a customer has advised of an allergy.
• Do not serve people with a food allergy or intolerance if you cannot guarantee that their food has
not been contaminated with their specific allergen.
• Ensure any allergen/dietary request orders are packaged separately and double bagged in order
to help prevent against possible cross contamination.
• Allergen/dietary request orders should be labelled in order to help prevent any possible
confusion.
12. Food Safety
Packaging
• Wash hands between packing each customer’s meal.
• Once prepared, food should be placed in a suitable food grade container for takeaway.
• Where possible avoid plastic packaging where the virus can live for long periods. Cardboard and
paper bags are recommended if possible.
• Avoid journey times of more than 30 minutes.
• Food to be transported in insulated containers to help maintain temperature control.
• Do not place hot and cold food in the same container.
• Keep details of all orders and deliveries.
• During storage, keep containers covered, stored inverted and off the floor.
13. Food Safety
Ordering & Collections
• Restrict ordering to online and email/phone orders only to reduce person to person contact.
• Payment by debit/credit card where possible rather than cash.
• Advise customers placing orders of the approximate time their food will be ready for collection.
• Keep up to date with government guidance on the type of takeaway/ delivery service you are allowed to do. Be
aware that this guidance may change daily.
• If you accept pickups, limit the number of customers inside at any given time.
• Customers should remain at a safe distance from staff and each other – at least 2 metres apart.
• Mark the floor to show safe distance
• Create a designated/hatched area for pick up.
14. Food Safety
Ordering & Collections
• Front of house staff to regularly wash their hands with hot water and soap for at least 20 seconds.
• Provide hand sanitiser for use where possible.
• Front of house staff to regularly clean and sanitiser all hand contact surfaces e.g. counters, tills, credit card machines
15. Food Safety
Ordering & Collections
• Display COVID – 19 signage on the door or somewhere visible to
customers advising of additional safety measures being taken at
this time.
This poster can be emailed to you in pdf format if you require it
16. Food Safety
Contact Free Deliveries
• Where possible, use a 3rd party delivery company.
• Delivery staff are food handlers and should receive a basic induction on food handling
and health monitoring should be in place.
• Delivery persons should avoid coming into the kitchens and avoid staff contact where possible.
• Staff should box up and leave in a low risk area away from the kitchen for the delivery person to
collect.
• Establish from the customer if they are self-isolating when the order is placed. If so, advise they
must pay over the phone or online and obtain their contact telephone number.
Delivery staff must not enter the customer's property in any circumstances.
17. Food Safety
Contact Free Deliveries
• If a delivery is being made to a customer who is self-isolating, the delivery staff should telephone
the customer when they arrive at their house and advise that the order has been left at their door.
• For all other customers, ring the doorbell and then step back at least 2 metres and wait nearby for
your customer to collect it.
• Provide delivery staff with hand sanitiser and/or disposable gloves which should be changed
regularly and between customers.
• Ask customers to put any chilled food in the fridge and hot food in the oven unless it will be served
straight away.
Delivery staff must not enter the customer's property in any circumstances.
18. Food Safety
Third Party Deliveries
• Offers a larger reach to your business.
• You must prove that the business is registered with the council and have a specified FHR.
• Some platforms are offering discounts and incentives for signing up.
• All offer contact free delivery at check out.
• Create a designated Packing area.
• Have a courier waiting area.
• Ensure that couriers can stay 2 metres apart from restaurant staff /customers at all times.
• Help buy meals for the NHS staff fighting COVID-19
20. Health & Safety
Delivery Staff
• Ensure delivery staff have a constant means of communication with the site e.g. mobile phone, and
that these devices are fully charged at the start of each shift.
• If delivery staff do not contact you or return to site in the expected time, contact them to locate
their whereabouts and ensure their safety.
• Ensure delivery staff are provided with the full address of the customer and use ‘maps’ on their
phone if required.
• Ensure delivery staff wear weather appropriate clothing.
21. Health & Safety
• Where possible deliveries should not occur after dark.
• If they must, delivery staff should be provided with hi-vis clothing and deliveries should be within a 15
minute walk.
Deliveries on Foot
22. Health & Safety
Vehicle Deliveries
• All vehicles should be fully insurance, taxed and have a full MOT.
• All vehicles should be road worthy and pre-use checks should be carried out for example tyres, fuel,
oil, brakes, lights, wipers and wiper wash (where applicable).
• All delivery drivers should have an appropriate licence for the vehicle being used. All delivery drivers
must adhere to the Highway Code.
• Staff making deliveries by bike/motorbike etc. should be provided with lights, hi-vis clothing and
must wear a helmet.
23. Health & Safety
Staff Working Onsite
• No lone working to take place during opening hours.
• There should always be at least two members of staff on any given shift.
• If a single member of staff is opening the site, the door should be locked until the site is due to open
and/or another member of staff arrives.
• At least 2 members of staff should close the site.
• Ensure that any cash is regularly banked or locked in the safe.
24. Health & Safety
Legionella
• Certain facilities may be used less during the COVID-19 outbreak, for example:
• Customer toilets
• Front of house/Bar basins
To reduce the risk of legionella bacteria, run the taps in these areas on a weekly basis in addition to the usual
legionella checks such as Sentinel taps etc.
Hi everyone. Welcome to the Food Alert Webinar on Takeaway and Delivery service guidance.
Myself and Fergal will be hosting this webinar. I have only been at FA since 2nd March and obviously things have been very different as COVID-19 has been the focus of the business in the last 2 weeks so that we can support you during this unprecedented time. I am an EHO who has worked in Local Authority and the private sector. My role at FA will be to drive the technical service provision within Food Alert, providing advice and guidance to clients and the Food Alert Team to ensure that we and you are up to date.
Fergal will introduce himself now….. UNMUTE FERGAL
THEN TURN OFF CAMERA WHEN FERGAL FINISHED
Food Alert appreciate what a difficult time this is for all businesses in the hospitality sector.
The challenges are great and many businesses have taken the difficult decision to close. Whether you choose to close or are remaining open as a takeaway in a bid to support and feed your local community, we want you to know that Food Alert are with you all the way.
We have guidance available for closing your business safely and have developed recommissioning guidance so that when the time comes to reopen you can do so quickly and safely. For those of you that are now doing takeaway and deliveries we will in this session, be going through the Takeaway guide that we produced to ensure that you are able to continue to run your business in a safe manner for your staff and your customers. It is very possible that there will be a staged approach to reopening once the restrictions are lifted so this guidance may be something that will be useful for that time too.
I will be presenting the first part of the presentation and will stop at the end of my session to check if there are any questions. There will also be time to take questions and at the end of the presentation and a a chance to discuss with your colleagues and us what you have heard.
A copy of the presentation, checklists and guidance will be emailed to you shortly.
First we will look at Food Safety.
The current scientific advice is that COVID-19 is very unlikely to be spread by food. Close contact with an infected individual via sneezing, coughing or picking up the virus from contaminated surfaces and then transfer by hands to face (eyes, nose and mouth) contact are all transmission routes that need to prevented with good hand hygiene and social distancing.
1. Food safety must still be at the forefront of your minds when preparing food for takeaway. There are some additional areas that you need to control that may not have been done in your usual business model but you should follow your usual HACCP and food safety procedures where appropriate.
2. Some of your suppliers may have closed or have restricted foods available. If you change suppliers ensure that they are reputable and add them to your supplier list. Reputable suppliers will be registered food businesses that should be able to show you a copy of their recent EHO reports, SALSA or BRC accreditation or similar scheme. Food supermarkets and wholesalers such as Costco would also be reputable. You can send them your supplier questionnaire which is available in the suppliers module on Alert 65. This will send your suppliers the supplier questionnaire for them to complete. Remember different suppliers of similar products may contain different ingredients and therefore allergens could be different as well. We will talk about allergens in detail later. Preparation instructions that you must follow may also be different for example if products are larger and therefore require longer and or higher cooking temperatures.
3. Maintaining hygienic practices and ensuring food safety are critical at all times. Where possible you should cook/reheat food to order. If bulk cooking, you need to ensure that you cool food quickly to prevent bacterial growth and spore and toxin formation.
It is recommended that food is offered cooked and ready-to-eat rather than cooked later by the customer.
4. Follow your usual cross contamination rules keeping raw a foods such as raw meat or poultry and dirty unwashed foods such as fresh produce separate from ready to eat foods in storage, during preparation and service. Continue to store raw meat at the bottom of refrigerators and freezers and use colour coded equipment during preparation.
5. Clean equipment and surfaces using detergent and disinfectant/sanitiser as COVID-19 is thought to survive on hard surfaces for up to three days which is why cleaning and disinfection routines throughout the customer journey are critical to minimise its spread. Ensure that the frequency of disinfection is increased throughout service, and make sure staff are including all high-touch surfaces such as work surfaces, tables, chairs, switches, door handles, push plates on doors, toilets, hand towel dispensers, taps, mop handles etc. Check that you are using sanitisers that comply with BS EN 1276 and that staff are adhering to the correct contact time. At the end of the shift, clean all high-touch surfaces one more time before closing.
6. It is best to have a separate area to store ready to eat prepared foods awaiting collection or delivery to prevent cross contamination.
7. If customers are picking up foods, do not allow then to handle bottles of sauces, salt & pepper etc as this could increase the risk of contamination. If necessary FOH staff should serve customers these items.
Continue to monitor and record due diligence temperature records as normal.
You can use your usual due diligence checks if they cover these processes but alternatively we have produced a Takeaway daily check list. CLICK ON THE LIST
The first section is opening checks some of which you will be used to completing but there are also some additional COVID-19 checks for example, allergen information for new dishes, COVID 19 signage displayed (we have created a sign for you which Fergal will show you later) and other checks on delivery staff and vehicles.
There is a section to record incoming deliveries – write in the supplier name the food checked and whether it is chilled, frozen or ambient and tick if it is in date and good condition and record the temperature where necessary.
Record your daily fridge and freezer temps twice a day as usual.
Cold hold – Record the unit number if you have more than one and the food type – choose high risk foods such as cooked meats and high protein foods and ensure that the temperature is checked at least every 4 hours. If the temperature is above 8C you will need to discard it within 4 hours of the last satisfactory check so for example if you checked at 2pm and the temperature was 5C and then you checked again at 4 pm and it was 9C you will need to throw the food away at 6pm (4 hours from 2pm). The more regularly you check, the less likely you will need to waste food.
For hot holding check at least every 2 hours that food is above 63C.
Record cook serve temperatures ensuring that they are above 75C. We recommend that you carry out checks during both service period for example lunch and evening service. Choose high risk foods and use a clean sanitised probe.
For batch cooking record the temperature at the end of the cooking time and the time and temperature at the end of cooling time. The key is to cool food quickly and get in the fridge and Cooling should take less than 2 hours to 20C and you will need to use active cooling methods if you do not have a blast chiller. This could include cutting into smaller portions, placing dishes on ice, using a fan and stirring regularly to encourage heat loss. Food should be placed in the fridge asap but within 2 hours. If you prepare and freeze food, you also need to cool and freeze it quickly and reheat it safely. Food must be reheated so that it is piping hot to a minimum 75° and consumed the same day.
Carry out the closing checks at the end of the day and staff must ensure that they write down any corrective action taken in the section at the bottom.
GO BACK TO SCREEN
To make life easier we suggest that you reduce the number of dishes for example 4 starters. 6-8 mains and 2-3 desserts. Don’t try to offer your entire menu and concentrate on dishes that work well for delivery.
Try to avoid anything that needs precision cooking such as steaks.
Have the correct menu for the time of day if you are serving throughout the day. Lead with easily available ingredients that are easy to prepare and travel well.
Think about peak times and when you will need more staff potentially.
Speed is essential so optimise so customers can receive their meal quickly and ideally within 30 mins of ordering.
Ensure staff are handwashing regularly and basins provided with warm running water, anti-bacterial soap and paper towels. Hands should be washed for at least 20 seconds.
It is extremely important that staff can keep themselves and others safe. Staff must stay two metres away from each other at all times and you need to ensure all staff understand what is expected of them and make sure their working area is reviewed and rearranged if necessary to allow this to happen safely. For example, you may put in extra controls such as only one person can be in the walk-in chiller or at the pass at any time. Marking lines on the floor at 2m apart will help. You should monitor this rule and can record any corrective action on the daily form.
All staff need to be informed of the background of coronavirus including transmission routes, symptoms and what to do if they become ill, self-isolation requirements and other relevant information to be able to effectively control the spread of coronavirus.
The Government COVID-19: guidance for employees, employers and businesses should be checked for the most recent updates.
You should make sure everyone’s contact numbers and emergency contact details are up to date
Make sure managers know how to spot symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) and are clear on any relevant processes, for example sickness reporting in case someone in the workplace is potentially infected and needs to take the appropriate action
You need to tell your customers if any food products you sell or provide contain any of the main 14 allergens as an ingredient.
Remember, allergic reactions to ingredients can be fatal so you must ensure that you and your staff are familiar with the full list of 14 allergens.
The 14 allergens are:
celery
cereals containing gluten – including wheat (such as spelt and Khorasan), rye, barley and oats
crustaceans – such as prawns, crabs and lobsters
eggs
fish
lupin
milk
molluscs – such as mussels and oysters
mustard
tree nuts – including almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts
peanuts
sesame seeds
soybeans
sulphur dioxide and sulphites (if they are at a concentration of more than ten parts per million)
It is important that you continue to follow the allergen controls and procedures in your food safety policy to prevent allergen incidents.
It is particularly important that your allergen information is up to date, in particular if you have made changes to your menus, purchased new ingredients or ingredients from different suppliers. You must not assume that the allergen information will be the same. Even existing suppliers may find it difficult to source your usual products so may change brands. Ensure that your supplier tells you of any substituted ingredients and that chefs etc are made aware of changes so they can check the ingredients lists.
If you have a website or other forms of advertising, you must clearly communicate that customers should ask about allergies and intolerances when they order.
When food is sold through distance selling, including through a telephone or online order for a takeaway, allergen information must be provided at two stages in the process. It means providing it:
before the purchase of the food is completed - this could be in writing (for example on a website, catalogue or menu) or verbally (for example by phone) and then again
when the food is delivered - this could be in writing (for example on allergen stickers on food or enclosed hard copy of menu) or verbally (for example by phone)
The allergen information should be available to a customer in a written form at some point between a customer placing the order and taking delivery of it.
When customers phone to place an order, you should ask them if they or any of their party have any allergies or intolerances. If they do, make a record of their requirements.
Ensure you communicate this clearly to kitchen staff to ensure the specific allergenic ingredient is avoided as well as ensuring food is prepared safely by avoiding cross contact.
CLICK TO NEXT SLIDE TO SHOW FORM
If you are unable to put in place safe procedures to prepare meals for allergy sufferers, you MUST NOT offer or serve allergy-free food. Only serve to customers if you are confident you can prepare those dishes safely.
Ensure you package the meal separately and it is good practice to double bag these meals to prevent cross contamination. You should clearly label the allergy sufferer’s meal, identifying their individual food items to avoid mistakes on delivery and unpacking by the customer.
During delivery, food prepared for allergenic customers should be stored separately to avoid any cross contact.
FA have developed this from that you can use if you do not have any other means of capturing the information.
Take the customer name, phone number and address and details of allergens – remember there could be more than one allergen request per order. Note the menu items chosen and the pick up or expected delivery time.
Staff should wash their hands between packing customers meals especially if there are any allergies in an order.
Food should be placed in suitable food grade containers.
Many of you will use plastic containers but where possible if you can use cardboard or paper packaging it is better as the virus cannot survive as long on these materials. should be transported in insulated containers to help maintain temperature control.
External delivery bags and containers should be easy to clean and disinfect using the two stage cleaning process.
Ensure effective disinfection at the start of the day, before carrying food and after deliveries, as well as regularly throughout the day.
Do not place hot and cold food in the same container to avoid heat transfer. Ice packs should also be cleaned and sanitised between uses.
Keep a log of all orders and deliveries (using the form or other method) and ensure that all delivery containers are stored off the floor, inverted i.e. lid side down and covered to prevent contamination for example by foreign bodies or pests.
Are there any questions on what we have looked at so far – if so please unmute yourself and ask the question and we will do our best to answer it.
I will now hand over to Fergal who will be discussing ordering and collections, contact free food deliveries and health & safety matters that you should consider with a takeaway service.
To avoid the need for customers to enter tap into social media and your existing customer base. Let them know about your new delivery service. Post flyers through local peoples door.
Many people want to support independent businesses through this crisis.
Third party deliveries have a number of benefits as you can tap into their customer base and expert knowledge. More on this later.
You can either deliver yourself and hire drivers or redeploy FOH staff to do the deliveries.
If you have an alcohol license offering this as part of the delivery service could help to maximise your profits as those self isolating will not be able to go to the shops to purchase drinks etc.
For alcohol you need a premise, personal (on and off license) and late night license.
Just eat FHR of above 3 and Deliveroo if you have a 2 or above
Uber Eats is waiving delivery and activations fees in the UK to support restaurants hit by decreasing demand during the coronavirus crisis.
The measure will apply until March 31 when it says it will review it.
All now offer contact free delivery
Just Eat – waiving sign up fee and offering 33% commission rebate to independent restaurants until 29 April.
Businesses can also sign up to this or at least request to, if there are close to a hospital location https://www.mealsforthenhs.com/restaurants/. Businesses are being asked to prepare meals for NHS staff and will get paid for it. A few requirements for participating restaurants or food providers: 1. Need to be able to make 50, self-serve meals. We want to make it as easy on the clinicians and hospitals as possible. They are short on utensils, so they will need to be provided. With that all said, we are trying to minimise waste as much as possible so the hospitals don't get overrun. 2. You'll need to have staff be able to deliver to the hospital. 3. Each meal needs to cost less than £10. 4. A balance of diets (veggie etc.).
team@mealsforthenhs.com
People donate online to pay for the meals.
It will continue to pay restaurants weekly and relax any arrangements with Independent partners that may be in place to enable them to work with other delivery aggregators.
