Part 4 - Preparing for your EHO Visit

Soap...Sanitisers.... Soap with Sanitisers.....

This sink must be plumbed in, must have hot and cold running water and must have a good anti-microbial soap, to ensure that all of the germs are killed and washed away and to ensure your hands are sanitised every time you wash.

When you wash with a hand soap which is high in sanitisers; which any soap that is anti-microbial is, it will absolutely dry your skin out.  There is no getting around this at all, that is the nature of the beast. Sanitisers kill bacteria, they really aren’t nice chemicals at all, but the Food Standards Agency and Environmental Health require you to wash your hands with Anti-Microbial Soap after touching any food group, before you move on to the next task.

At Astral we sell a wide range of soaps, but for catering use you would really need to be using an anti-microbial or anti bacterial soap.  We stock the Gojo Anti-microbial soap, which comes out of a specific dispenser which is mounted on the wall.  We also have 500ml pump top soaps which are smaller, also antibacterial and can be moved around. The other options available include a bulk fill soap dispenser which you could put the 5ltrs of anti-bacterial hand wash. 

So if you have been peeling potatoes, and then move on to the carrots, you must wash your hands.  Red meat – absolutely wash your hands, chicken wash your hands – you getting the picture – wash, wash, wash!!

A great deal of bacteria including norovirus (the sickness and diarrhoea bug) resides on our raw vegetables.  If you think about how these vegetables are harvested, by who, how clean are these people keeping their hands? Have they washed their hands after they have gone to the toilet?  How much faecal bacteria is on their hands which they are transferring to your vegetables – you‘d wash your vegetables too!

So the moral of the story is wash your vegetables! You could even use this if you so desired?  These chlor tablets are perfect for sanitising your vegetables if the dilution is correct, and if you are ensuring the dilution (amount of water) is correct, you can safely  sanitise them and then cook and serve to the public. 

Of course a fundamental nugget of info is to label your cooked food correctly, when was it prepared?  By whom?  Store it on the correct shelf/fridge. All cooked and raw foods must be stored and labelled correctly – so that you know how old it is, and when it is due to be used by?

If you have the luxury; separate fridges to minimise the risk of cross contamination, but if you don’t; use your common sense, raw meat on the bottom, and cooked up top!

 I have linked a few useful products I have mentioned in this blog, so feel free to give my team a call with any questions, buy or have a browse.  We also do dispensers for the soaps, which you can give us a call to have a look here.

Next week we’ll wrap this section up with some more tidbits of info on how to have a GREAT relationship with your EHO!