Today’s verdict is a stark reminder of our responsibilities as food establishments.
Mitchells & Butler were fined £1.5m and the pub manager and head chef were sent to prison following the death of a customer and 30 people having food poisoning after eating a 2012 Christmas Day meal at The Railway Inn in Hornchurch.
Food hygiene processes were lacking and records were falsified by the manager and chef.
You can only imaging what every party involved has gone through with the death of a loved one, severe illness suffered by others, the imprisoning of the responsible people all could have been avoided if the processes and policies were followed.
Every Owner and Manager of a cafe or coffee shop has a big responsibility to ensure the saftey of the guests and staff and failure in this results in very severe punishment through the courts. Its no good just having these policies in place like M&B did, it’s your responsibility to ensure that they are followed.
Now is a great time to review your own procedure, processes and records to prevent this type of thing happening to you. Get a third party in to have a look at your business with new eyes, perhaps do an exchange with a friend who runs a food business too and check each others or contact you EHO for advice.
The Cafe Success Hub are able to provide a full set of compliant documents for you to keep yourself legal, when was the last time you checked that your processes were fail safe?
