Food Safety and the British Army

Yesterday I watched on the BBC a news coverage of how Christmas Meals Preparation is carried out at the Largest British Army Base in Agfghanisistan.

As the Head Chef (An Army Staff Sergeant) took the BBC correspondent around the kitchen and tried to explain how the meals for 4000 personnel would be made for the day I instinctively watched to see how many food safety violations I could spot and I must say I was not disappointed.

Firstly none of the kitchen staff and cooks wore white coveralls, they all wore military fatique (camoflague Short Sleeved Army Green T-Shirts and Army Uniform Pants) I could have sworn I spotted a cook mixing food with a bangle or wrist watch clearly visible.There were no aprons. Virtually everyone in the kitchen had heads uncovered (including the head chef and the BBC staff) and the few ones with covered hair wore Santa Claus hats on thier head in place of hair restrainers, Also few food could be spotted uncovered in metal gastronoms.

Although a 3 minute tour of a kitchen is not much time to make inferences about the food safety standards in a kitchen, but from what I could spot I doubt if there is any form of HACCP practice in the kitchen.

THEO

Dear Theo,

I guess the environmental constraints are a little extreme perhaps ?

How about this one ?



Rgds / Charles.C

British Army Base in Agfghanisistan is not the only one that doesn't practice food safety on television.

Almost every show of the cooking channels does the same.

Makes my skin burn when I see the chefs will flowy hair, dressed up to the nines, make-up, and so much jewellery.

A personal grind is when they pull their hair away from their face, re-arrange their clothes or touch their eye glasses and then go straight into touching exposed product.

Perhaps they should join this forum!

Dear Jaqmqa,

True comments but it is all too easy to point the finger sometimes.

I recall a few years ago being equally astonished when I found that Australia had a “secondary” organised system to clear retail products which had not been sold within their official “best before” dates.

Not theoretically unsafe of course and maybe the same procedure occurs in other countries also but I haven’t met it (above the table) again since. Of course the date is occasionally simply totally ignored or manually “updated” instead. Have encountered / rejected lots for both of those defects in the course of inspection activities.

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi,

I'm afraid to write a nonsense, but I looked at my "lovely " law papers again.
F.ex EC 852/2004
Article 1--Scope--
2. This regulation shall not apply to:
(b) the domestic preparation, handling or storage of food for private domestic consumption;

So could it be that TV-shows belongs under the private food handling

P.S. and what about prisoners?? I think they make food by them selves a group of uneducated killers making food for other 100 killers isn't it????

Charles, Thanks for Mr.Bean show

Dear Inesa,

Thks. This guy has the most versatile face i hv ever seen.

Regarding yr earlier post. The first part certainly meaningful. Not so clear about the second.??

Well, I don’t see any specific exclusion of TV performances in the directive although I rather doubt that they come within the intended scope of a FBO. However they can hardly be described as private domestic enterprises also IMHO.

Some (relatively) public, possible, exclusions are mentioned in this Sanco document –

3.8. The occasional handling, preparation, storage and serving of food by private persons

Operations such as the occasional handling, preparation, storage and serving of food by private persons at events such as church, school or village fairs are not covered by the scope of the Regulation. This is made clear in recital 9 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. The second sentence states that:

"Community rules should only apply to undertakings, the concept of which implies a certain continuity of activities and a certain degree of organisation".

The term “undertaking” is integrated in the definition of a “food business” (in accordance with Article 3(2) of the General Food Law (Regulation (EC) No 178/2002), a “food business” must be an “undertaking”).

Somebody who handles, prepares, stores or serves food occasionally and on a small scale (e.g. a church, school or village fair and other situations such as organised charities comprising individual volunteers where the food is prepared occasionally) cannot be considered as an “undertaking” and is therefore not subject to the requirements of Community hygiene legislation.

The TV “demonstrators” are hardly volunteers but the production is certainly on a small scale from the TV point of view albeit perhaps not ultimately so. I noticed that some TV productions specifically include hygiene tips also which (intentionally / bravely?) invites response similar to those seen in some of the threads on this forum, ie mixed.

I wonder if there is a (general ) regulations disclaimer discreetly added somewhere at the end of all these presentations.? Due diligence.

Regardless of the above, these programs tend to be heavily scrutinised in respect to basic hygiene logics with predictable results. eg see these entertaining links (last two perhaps the most scientific, although the opening quote in main text of barfblog now has certain caveats maybe**) –

http://news.bbc.co.u...ews/2608675.stm

http://barfblog.food...l-basic-hygiene
(+ comments)

http://forums.chef2c...ic.php?t=155634
( + a lot of comments)

** http://www.fda.gov/F...umers/ucm114299
http://answers.yahoo...30102239AAF7fSz


Rgds / Charles.C

Still speaking of Food Safety and the Military, I read that The Chinese Army is to take steps to ensure the safety of its food supply due to fears unsafe products could harm combat capacity.

Dear all,

I found some links regarding cooking in the UK army:

http://www.army.mod....career/375.aspx

http://www.telegraph...n-thousand.html



Dear Charles,

Regarding yr earlier post. The first part certainly meaningful. Not so clear about the second.??

forget about the second part, it was just a though about large scale institutions as army including prison too. Had no idea if there are some kitchen hygiene rules followed... but I found this http://www.4qconfere...land_C_long.pdf Seems some places they do care about prisoners food..
Sorry for being totally off topic

Dear Inesa,

Good promo.stuff.

Regarding 2nd part, OK now i understand. In fact I have seen similar, extremely comprehensive, QA oriented publications for the UK situation also, even including complete weekly menus from memory. Probably borrowed from British Rail.

Rgds / Charles.C

I missed this thread, I don't have any comments except...thanks.