Managing Allergens: How We Keep Our Customers Safe

 

Ensuring the safety of customers with food allergies is a critical responsibility to protect people from the risk of serious allergic reactions, as well as being a legal requirement for the business. 

 

We want to share with you what we do as a business to effectively manage allergens and the proactive steps we take to keep our customers safe, ensuring you have trust in our processes and the products and services which we deliver to you. 

 

We provide accurate and clear allergen information, which is visible and easily accessible. This applies to our education and nursery school meals, our packaged food and for our buffet style offerings. 

 

Labelling will include the ingredients list and this may also be included on prepared menus. Allergens will be clearly highlighted. Food items for allergens will be packaged separately. 

Of course, having a well-trained team is key to our allergen management and our customer safety. 

 

Our kitchen team are trained in food allergens and cross-contamination risks. To ensure we remain informed of best practices and regulatory changes, we work with an external food safety consultant. 

 

Cross-contamination is one of the biggest risks in food allergies and therefore strict control measures are in place to mitigate this risk. 

 

When preparing our regular and non-regular dishes, separate utensils, such as different colour coded knives and different chopping boards are used and all surfaces and utensils are thoroughly cleaned between uses. 

 

We ensure that any ingredients containing allergens are stored separately from other ingredients and are also clearly labelled. Where possible, we avoid using the same ingredients in multiple dishes in order to reduce the risk of contamination. 

As suppliers to many nursery settings, we cater for younger guests who have specific dietary requirements. Therefore, clear communication and flexibility is essential between our kitchen team and our customers. 

 

We adjust our menu for those children with allergies. For example, substituting ingredients or offering an alternative, aligning where possible a similar dish, so the child does not feel isolated by eating differently to the other children at the same table. This change is communicated with the nursery teams. All ingredients are shared as part of the menu, for both regular and non-regular dishes. 

 

This also applies to our corporate customers. Ensuring we obtain all dietary requirements ahead of food preparation is crucial. Allergens are clearly marked on packaging or packaged separately. 

 

We welcome and encourage feedback from our nurseries and corporate clients and regular communication takes place. 

 

Not only for legal compliance, but as a duty of care to our customers, we retain records which includes traceability. 

 

For all dishes, a record of ingredients is maintained. This allows our team to quickly trace back to a particular ingredient, if a concern about allergens is raised. Therefore, communicating well with suppliers to ensure they provide allergen information to us is key. 

 

We keep records of our allergen management procedures, ensuring they are up to date. This record includes training undertaken, supplier communication, cleaning processes and allergen-specific adjustments to our menus. This assists to ensure consistent practices, as well as demonstrating compliance in the event of a food safety audit or inspection by the EHO. 

Accidents can happen and we recognise this, so it is important that we have a plan in place to recognise allergic reactions from any of our team members and how to respond. As standard, we have several first aid kits in the kitchens of our premises and ask staff members at the point of recruitment for any known allergies. 

 

Should a concern be received from a customer, in relation to somebody suffering from an allergic reaction, we ensure the Management Team are immediately made aware, as well as commencing an internal investigation in relation to the complaint. 

 

The EHO enforce allergen safety laws through routine inspections and we are delighted to have again, been awarded the highest level in food safety and hygiene. 

 

We would be happy to chat with you further about how we can manage allergens for you, call our friendly team on 0121 706 6009 or email admin@robinsonscatering.co.uk