Assessing and Managing the Risks - when catering for allergy

The first step in managing risk is to assess what you and your staff already know about preparing and serving food to people with severe food allergy or other conditions requiring them to avoid a particular food/ingredient. What experience and knowledge does your team already have?

Talk to your team and find out:

Has anyone ever seen somebody having an allergic reaction? What happened? Was a food involved?

What precautions are already in place?

Are you and your team:

• Checking ingredients?

• Separating foods in storage?

• Separating foods in preparation?

• Separating foods in service?

You can then identify how well your existing systems are working and where you need to make changes to ensure that ingredients are identifiable and that contamination is controlled.

Key areas of focus are:

Risks in Delivery

Risks in Storage

Contamination from other foods

Risks from Selling food

What to do in an emergency situation