Health and Safety at Easter

Easter is not far away and everyone is looking forward to a long weekend, full of chocolate and family festivities. As a business it can be a very busy weekend so it is important to ensure that your company/site is fully prepared to ensure everyone is safe at any special Easter activities.

A number of sites open their doors for seasonal activities, both indoors and outdoors including treasure hunts and egg painting and many activities which offer tasty food products.

It is therefore very important that if any special activities do happen that they all:

Have up-to-date and complete risk assessments

All sites must ensure that there are controls in place to reduce the chance of any incidents occurring at the site.

Ensure children are safe and have adequate supervision

The event must have enough competent and trained staff for the event. All children should be supervised throughout and all staff who are responsible for the supervision of the children have completed a CRB check. Please also ensure that any hazards including environmental, physical and chemical hazards have been removed and if they can’t be removed that there are adequate measures in place to reduce the hazard, for example: boundaries and adult supervision.

Weather and environment

If the activity is outside it must be within boundaries and away from any hazardous places such as lakes. If it is warm please remember to apply sunscreen and advise hats and sunglasses to be worn. Water should also be readily available at all times.

As we live in the UK the chances of the cold or rainy weather is also highly likely, therefore please ensure there is a plan B if the weather could affect your plans.

If the event includes food products it is also important that food hygiene standards remain at a high standard and organisers ensure:

• That if any eggs are used for either painting or decorating that lion marked eggs are used. This is to reduce the chance of Salmonella as the hens have all been vaccinated against Salmonella.
• Anyone who handles raw eggs washes their hands before and after handling them.
• Uncooked eggs should always be stored in refrigerated conditions and classed as raw. This means stored at the bottom of the fridge away from ready to eat products.
• All eggs should be within the best before date and any after that should be disposed of.
• Once cooked they should be cooled within 90mins (as fast as possible) then stored in a refrigerator.
• Please ensure that all cooked eggs (if to be eaten) are consumed within 2 hours.

Allergen information

A lot of activities around Easter include food products such as eggs and chocolate so it is very important to ensure that allergen information is available for all customers and parents. Some chocolate can contain gluten and nuts which can be very serious to those with allergies so please ensure that customers are aware and that staff check with parents before offering any food items.

Before carrying out any event please ensure the following:

• Clear and well positioned signage is available for customers regarding allergens.
• Allergen information is available for all products at site.
• Staff are trained in allergens

From all of us at the CSC, may we wish you safe and enjoyable Easter. If you need any support, please contact us.