Safe Food Fast Food
Anita Stone, Senior Environmental Health Officer, explained how with the help of her colleagues, Rachel Lambley, and Trish Haswell, also Senior Environmental Health Officers, they successfully worked with Turkish, Chinese and Asian food businesses to deliver the Food Standards Agency’s 4 C’s campaign.
- Chilling
- Cooking
- Cross contamination
- Cleaning
Summary
The ‘Safe Food, Fast Food’ campaign was primarily aimed at food handlers who did not speak English as their first language. Participants were required to attend four one hour training sessions consisting of a presentation lasting approximately 15 minutes and then two practical training exercises in which the participants had to satisfactorily demonstrate tasks associated with the talk. The four sessions were based on the Food Standards Agency’s ‘Four C’s’ campaign, with each session covering one of the Four C’s in turn. The course was supplemented with a photo book, which depicted ‘right’, and ‘wrong’ pictures under the same four subject headings, with a minimal amount of text. All four sessions were delivered in a kitchen, which prepared Turkish, Asian, or Chinese style food, as appropriate.
Project Start Date: October 2004 and November/December 2005
Project Origins and original aims/Objectives and purpose of the project:
The objective of the campaign was to deliver the four C’s message to three ethnic groups: Turkish, Asian and Chinese food handlers. These 3 ethnic groups were targeted as they had the highest percentage of high-risk premises (risk rating category A or B), which suggested that traditional methods of communicating food safety messages to these groups were of limited success. The training was based around visual aids (photographs were used in the book which accompanied the course and for the presentation) and practical demonstrations of concepts introduced in the presentation. This made the course suitable for persons who have difficulty understanding English or have difficulty in reading printed information. Delivering the training within a kitchen allowed practical demonstration and application of ideas and concepts, using equipment and types of food, which were familiar to the participants.
Organisations involved:
1. City of York Environmental Health
Target Audience:
All Chinese, Asian and Turkish (including Iranian) businesses within the City of York Council were invited to enrol on the course. All of the courses were oversubscribed and the numbers of participants had to be limited. The number of people successfully completing the course was a total of 63 (21 people completing the Asian course, 29 completing the Chinese course and 13 completing the Turkish course). The Asian and Chinese courses were fully interpreted by community representatives and the three businesses who provided the venues (kitchens) for the courses were given publicity in an article which appeared in the local newspaper.
Methodology:
Members of the food and safety unit took digital photographs and compiled and formatted the photobook, which accompanied the course. One copy was given to each participant and books translated into Turkish, Traditional Chinese and Bengali were made available.
Several of the photographs used in the photo book were also used in the PowerPoint presentation that was delivered at the start of each of the four sessions. The presentations lasted approximately 15 minutes and were delivered by members of the food and safety unit. The presentations to the Asian course and Chinese course were fully translated into Bengali and Cantonese and Mandarin, respectively. The presence of a live translator facilitated communication and made the sessions more interactive. The remaining session time was devoted to the practical tasks where the participants were required to demonstrate concepts introduced in the presentation. The sessions were based on the ‘Four C’s’ subject areas and arranged as follows:
Session 1 Introduction and Cold storage and chilling
Practicals: Using a digital probe thermometer to take the temperatures of food stored in the refrigerator and taking a between pack temperature and a demonstration of 3 methods of cooling hot food down which showed the effectiveness of each in reducing temperature.
Session 2 Cooking, Reheating and Hot Holding
Practicals: Using a digital probe thermometer to take the
temperature of cooked foods, reheated foods and foods being held hot (in a bain marie and hot display cabinet)
Session 3 Cross contamination
Practicals: Correct storage of raw and ready to eat foods in the refrigerator and ways in which bacteria can be spread by hands using a ‘glo and show’ box .
Session 4 Cleaning
Practicals: Presenting different types of chemicals and asking participants to choose the correct type of cleaning chemicals for a task allocated and to understand how to prevent cross contamination when cleaning.
All the participants were required to attend all four training sessions and successfully
complete all the practical exercises in order to obtain a certificate.
All the people who successfully completed the course were invited to an awards ceremony for the presentation of their certificate by Shaheen Zar, Head of Meat Fraud and Diversity at the Food Standards Agency. Approximately 22 people attended the presentation.
Evaluation:
The success of the campaign was evaluated by a questionnaire, which was given to each participant. 61 questionnaires were completed in total (from 63 participants) and gave very positive feedback.
The aim to increase knowledge of the Four C’s amongst the target audience was fulfilled, with 52 people (85%) stating that after completing the course they learnt ‘a lot more than I knew’ and 9 people (15%) stating that they knew ‘a little bit more’. Nobody indicated that they knew ‘not much more’.
The practical exercises, which were used to help deliver the messages in a format that would be understandable by the participants, were well received. All 61 respondents indicated that the practical exercises were ‘good/interesting’. The other two elements of the course, the presentation and the photo book were found to be ‘good/interesting’ by 60 people. Overall 60 people (98%) thought the course was ‘good/interesting’; with the remaining 1 person indicating that the course was ‘neither (good or poor)’.
Some of the comments made by the participants included; ‘Very easily understood, good use of rights and wrongs’ and ‘We always want to know from you how we can improve’.
Resources:
The three officers from the food and safety unit who had delivered the project also designed and compiled all the elements of the campaign themselves. The project was delivered as part of the work programme of the unit during 2004/2005.
Small costs were incurred in the translation of the 3 photo books (which only contained a small amount of text) and the purchasing of props for the practical demonstrations including items of food and cleaning materials. There was no charge made for attendance on the course.
For the training to be as successful as it was it was essential to have the translators from the local businesses who were happy to assist their community and provided their time free of charge.
Lessons Learned:
1. To differentiate between Mandarin and Cantonese speakers: holding separate sessions for each group.
2. To strictly limit the number of candidates to facilitate the practical sessions (to approximately 20 persons)
3. Cleaning and disinfection was the subject area that participants had least prior knowledge of. For this reason, the information on this subject needed to be simple to understand
4. Allow extra time for the presentations that require translation.
5. Ask participants to wear protective clothing whilst carrying out practical demonstrations in the kitchen (in order to encourage compliance with legislation)
6. The businesses that were chosen as host venues were picked due to their capacity and willingness to co-operate. Unfortunately, their locations were not within the city centre, which would have been preferable to some candidates. In addition one of the host venues was not fully compliant with legislative requirements.
7. The courses ran more smoothly when the four sessions were held in consecutive weeks.
8. All the people who successfully completed the course were invited to an awards ceremony for the presentation of their certificate by Shaheen Zar, Head of Meat Fraud and Diversity at the Food Standards Agency. The number of candidates who wished to attend the awards ceremony was quite low. The business proprietors were therefore invited to the ceremony to collect the certificates on behalf of their staff.
Update on the intiative
The course was repeated in November and December 2005 for Turkish, Cantonese and Mandarin speakers using the same training materials and photobooks. Unfortunately, there was not enough interest from the Bengali community to make it viable to run a course for this group. A total of 41 people completed this second course and complimentary comments were again received from the returned questionnaires. The sessions on cooking and cross contamination were swopped over this time so that there were more variety in activities between weeks one and two. The timing of the training has also coincided with the implementation of the new food hygiene regulations and has therefore been beneficial in introducing the 4C’s concept and keeping monitoring documentation to businesses.
This time, the Mandarin and Cantonese sessions were held separately, there were no more than 20 people at any session and the host venues all complied with the legislation (although they were generally smaller than the venues used last time).
Future Developments (Sustainability of Initiative):
As the courses were oversubscribed (in particular the Chinese course) and well received, it is proposed to run the campaign again for the year 2005/2006, using the same materials and props. This will increase the number of food handlers within the City of York who have received the training, and will provide a good basis for the forthcoming changes in food safety legislation.
The same format of learning and styles of learning materials could also be extended to other ethnic groups.
Copies of the translated photo book can also be distributed to other businesses to assist with understanding of the Four C’s.
It is also hoped in the future to work with trading standards colleagues and community dieticians in order to introduce food standards and nutritional advice.
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This project has now completed and remains on the Food Vision site as an example of a great food project, the project team can no longer be contacted.