As Ireland emerges from COVID19 lockdowns, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) used World Food Safety Day as an opportunity to inform small food enterprises about food safety guidelines and regulations. In a short talk on “How to manage food safety in your business,”, the FSAI’s Lisa O’Carroll noted that many small food businesses might be moving from providing a takeaway service back to a “sit-in” service and, indeed, many people are looking to start new food businesses.

This event was June’s episode of FSAI’s “Breakfast Bites” series of “free, informal meetings for small food businesses” and was an opportunity to go through the basic food safety requirements food businesses need to consider, addressing two key questions: ‘What food safety hazards have to managed?’ And ‘How should they be managed?’

The talk started with fundamentals such as what types of hazards arise within the food chain – and made the point that many food professionals view allergens as the “4^th hazard” after biological, chemical and physical hazards. “The truth is,” said O’Carroll, “people can actually be allergic to anything.” She later made the point that while companies are generally good at understanding and managing biological hazards, there is less awareness about chemical hazards such as acrylamides.

The talk addressed ways of implementing a Food Safety Management Systems, making use of Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) and the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and flagged up some basics about traceability. Listeners were steered towards the key regulatory texts published by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), as well as the Codex Alimentarius’ General Principles of Food Hygiene.

A recording of the event will be available on the FSAI’s Youtube channel