With a looming recession and a crackdown on hygiene standards for food business operators, there’s never been a better time to demonstrate just how on it you are when it comes to hygiene and safety standards in your establishment.

It’s important for anyone who works with or handles food to be aware of the latest food hygiene and safety laws and standards, and a food hygiene certificate is the perfect way to meet them and demonstrate this to your customers. There are many different levels of food hygiene certificates – for example, a level 1 food hygiene certificate is designed for those working around food but don’t handle or prepare it. A level 2 certificate is designed for anyone who handles or prepares unwrapped food and is the most popular food hygiene qualification

What does the law say?

There isn’t actually any legal requirement for a level 2 food hygiene certification if you’re working with food. Legally, food business operators have to make sure that anyone handling food has received appropriate instructions and is supervised and/or trained in food hygiene matters relevant to their role – but this doesn’t mean they have to hold any formal exams or certificates. This can be completed in a number of ways including on-the-job-training, e-learning or even just experience.

However, when an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) visits the premises to assess your food hygiene standards, you need to be able to show evidence of this training to show that all food handling staff have the necessary skills. This makes a food hygiene certificate one of the easiest ways of demonstrating the standard of training everyone has had

So why should you be looking for a level 2 food hygiene course?

It’s a good question – why would you spend time and money getting a certificate that legally your employees don’t need? Well, it’s simple really.

An accredited food hygiene certificate is verifiable evidence that everyone working at your establishment has a good level of food hygiene that’s been approved by an independent third-party organisation. It’ll show your customers, your staff and the EHO that your business is taking food safety very seriously  by investing in their teams knowledge and skills.

What does a level 2 food hygiene certificate involve?

There are several areas that a level 2 food hygiene course covers, including:

• Legal obligations
• Food poisoning and food-borne micro-organisms
• Simple microbiology e.g., toxins, spores, growth and death
• Premises and equipment
• Common food hazards
• Personal hygiene
• Preventing food contamination
• Food poisoning and food-borne illnesses
• Cleaning and disinfection
• Pest control
• Effective temperature control of food
• Safe food storage
• Allergen awareness

How do you get a level 2 food hygiene certificate?

Getting a food hygiene certificate is pretty straightforward. You just need to find an approved provider who has good customer reviews. Here at Food Alert, you can sign up for an approved level 2 food hygiene course with our provider iHasco. The course (which is rated ‘excellent’) is interactive and animated to hold the learner’s attention. This is especially important to make sure learners remain engaged and take on board what they are being taught.

You can book this and other training courses by visiting our dedicated eLearning webpage, via Alert65 software or by getting in touch with our friendly eLearning team.