Practical tips for barbecue safety

As summer approaches, the sunshine encourages us all to move our cooking outside and enjoy barbecue season. Cooking and eating outdoors brings a new set of food safety risks that shouldn’t be ignored. Summer usually sees an increase in the number of accidents involving barbecues with typical injuries including burns, scalding, cuts and fire related incidents. The undercooking of poultry and meat also usually leads to an increase in food poisoning with Campylobactor usually being the main offender.

To enable your business to enjoy a safe and fun barbecue, the following safety tips should be implemented:

1. Have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment in place that would identify all the potential hazards. Factors to take into account include gas safety, fire safety, location and ensuing that the barbecue is not left unattended when in use.
2. Ensure that your HACCP plan covers all elements of food safety and with all Critical Control Points to be monitored.
3. The barbecue must be used in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions and staff should be adequately trained.
4. The designated members of staff operating the barbecue must be appropriately trained to the required level for both food safety and health and safety.

By following these simple steps you can ensure a safe and fun barbecue. Do you need help with risk assessments, compiling a site specific hazard analysis or staff training requirements? CSC can help you, contact us today.