A day in the life of an EHP: on the frontline of food safety

Our Member Engagement Manager, Daniel Radley, recently spent the day shadowing routine food safety inspections with CIEH member and co-chair of our food safety coffee catch ups, Theresa Fidge. In this blog Daniel shares his experience, learning more about the nuance and rigour involved in these inspections, and how this shapes the topics and content that are important to bring to future food safety member forum events.

At the end of every member forum event I ask attendees to provide content suggestions for future webinars. A few weeks ago I was discussing some of the food safety related topics that members had suggested with the new co-chair of the food safety coffee catch up sessions, Theresa Fidge CEnvH MCIEH, Senior Environmental Health Practitioner for Food Safety in Kingston and Sutton. After discussing some of these topics, Theresa invited me to spend a day shadowing her on some routine inspections. With a desire to get a sense of the bigger picture of challenges that EHPs face during food inspections and understand why some of the topics had been put forward for discussion at member forum events, I accepted her invitation and took the train down to Kingston on Thames.

Before embarking on our visits, I met with Theresa who had carefully planned our schedule for the day including visits to a high street bakery, a Middle Eastern restaurant and a large gastro pub. All were routine inspections so none of the businesses would be expecting us, however, there was some preparation required ahead of the inspections. Theresa had done her due diligence reviewing each of the businesses’ previous inspection reports noting any complaints or incidents and what their current Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) score was, and came prepared with the necessary equipment and tools to inspect these food businesses, of which there were many. Fully equipped and prepared, we ventured into Kingston Town Centre to commence with our inspections.

An eye for detail

Although each of the food businesses on our schedule were very different, the same standards and checklist applied during all visits. As an adequate hand-washing station is essential to prevent the spread of germs, we’d start each inspection by putting the business’s hand-washing facilities to the test. Theresa then continued the visit by examining how hygienically the food is handled, how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled, stored and labelled. I quickly learnt how rigorous a food inspection was, including looking out for things like raw food being stored with cooked food, checking various temperatures and what measures are in place to prevent cross-contamination, inadequate cooking and reheating practices as well as ensuring each establishment is regularly conducting and documenting their own checks and that all paperwork is complete and well-maintained.

The general hygiene and cleanliness of the business is also examined with every area where food is prepared being inspected including the kitchen, serving counters, bars, coffee stations, staff rooms as well as any outside spaces. Cleaning materials were checked, including which products, tools and equipment are used, and the use and maintenance of grease traps. Uniforms are checked (all unused aprons should be clean and not dirty or soiled) and checks are completed for any signs of pest infestation. One of the premises we encountered had previously faced closure because of a pest problem. Theresa had informed me about the issue prior to our arrival so when we stepped foot in that establishment, our focus shifted to the precautions they had taken to resolve this and avoid further infestations.

After experiencing some unexpected events (one of the business was unfortunately subject to theft), our day ended on a high note, with the final food business we visited maintaining their FHRS score of 5.

I would like to thank Theresa for inviting me to join her on these routine food safety inspections.

Getting away from my desk to step inside the shoes of an EHP for a day wasn’t just a bit of an adventure, the experience was very insightful and gave me a better understanding of some of the challenges food safety EHPs encounter. I observed how EHP’s rely on their keen eye for detail and exceptional communication skills and was impressed with the level of food safety knowledge that rolled straight from Theresa’s tongue throughout the day, even some of the kitchen staff we visited seemed to learn a thing or two from her.