The law

Under food hygiene law in the UK, food handlers must receive adequate supervision, instruction and/or training in food hygiene for the work they do. In addition the Health and Safety at Work Act requires business owners to ensure, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of his employees. 

The training requirement applies to all food businesses and the proprietor of each business is responsible for ensuring that their business complies with the law.

Generally

Before they start any work involving the handling of food, staff should receive induction training in the workplace to make them aware of food hygiene issues. Staff will also need further instruction suited to the type of work they do. You and your staff might all have different training needs, so you should consider each member of staff individually. You might also need to make special arrangements for staff whose first language is not English and those who have learning difficulties or literacy problems.

In brief the training requirement is as follows:
 

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Temporary or part time staff  that do not handle open food and are under continuous supervision
 
Staff who handle food must have ‘hygiene awareness instruction’ from a competent person within 4 weeks of starting work. The overall aim of ‘hygiene awareness instruction’ is to develop acknowledge of the basic principles of food hygiene. The topics covered should include:
• Temperature control;
• Food poisoning;
• Personal health and hygiene;
• Cross contamination;
• Food storage;
• Waste disposal;
• Foreign body contamination;
• Awareness of pests.

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Full time staff

The Industry Guide to ‘good hygiene practice’ suggests that staff who prepare open high risk foods, or handle food and have a supervisory role, must have training to at least a level equivalent to the NCASS level 2 within 3 months of starting work.

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Owner operators or supervisors

It is recommended that managers and/or supervisors undertake training  to Level 3  or Level 4