Food Standards Agency
Safer food better business banner
AZ-Directory
What's NewRSS
What is RSS?Listen
Listen to this siteFriday 21 March 2003
The Food Standards Agency has awarded ten local authorities £10,000 each to support their food hygiene initiatives. The awards are being made after the FSA invited local authorities to come up with ideas of how to get key food hygiene messages across to their local communities.
The scheme put forward by Blackburn and Darwen Council aims to increase understanding and awareness of the 4Cs in schools and in the wider community.
The scheme focuses on a play to be performed by an Asian theatre group which incorporate the themes of food safety, hygiene and preparation and will be based around a story of an Asian wedding. Initially the play will be performed at schools and community venues in two areas which form part of Blackburn's Community Regeneration Zones. The play will be videoed and translated into a number of languages for wider educational purposes in schools and will also be distributed to local ethnic food business as a training tool.
The scheme will be evaluated by looking at the success of the play and the take-up of the video as well as by considering the effect on the number of food complaints.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Yasmin Powell of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council at yasmin.powell@blackburn.gov.uk or Mike Hall at mike.hall@blackburn.gov.uk .
Bolton Metro Council's scheme looks at schoolchildren and caterers, and focuses on deprived areas in the Borough. A third of Bolton's population lives within seven wards which are amongst the 10 per cent most deprived in England.
The scheme incorporates two poster competitions. The one for primary school children focuses on the 'Handy Gang' pack which will also be created as part of the scheme. The pack will contain lesson plans and resources including worksheets and quizzes covering issues such as handwashing and food safety. The competition for secondary school children will encourage research into the 4Cs. Handwashing equipment will also be provided for school nurses to reinforce the importance of handwashing to schoolchildren and training will be provided for breakfast club volunteers. Much of the focus of the scheme is for on schoolchildren, but there is also award scheme, the 'Heart of Bolton' award will be launched for caterers and will focus on issues including hygiene and training.
Each strand of the scheme will be evaluated separately through various means such as questionnaires, feedback, course evaluation and uptake.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Ken Hardman of Bolton Metro Borough Council at Ken.Hardman@bolton.gov.uk .
The scheme being run by Bradford Metropolitan District Council concentrates on an area of the city with a range of cultures called Barkerend. The scheme is aimed at families of children under 5 and hopes to reach over 600 households.
Although the scheme is focussing on one geographic area, it is anticipated that the tools developed will be applicable to other areas. The scheme will be delivered in partnership with Sure Start and the food hygiene messages of the campaign will be delivered by peer education through Sure Start's network of community volunteers and workers. Environmental Health Officers and the Public Health Nurse will train the peer educators and support will be provided for them through materials developed specifically for the scheme.
Changes in food handling will be assessed by means of a pre- and post- advice questionnaire which will also assess the usefulness of the materials devised for the scheme.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Jim Aveyard of Bradford Metropolitan District Council at jim.aveyard@bradford.gov.uk .
Improved food hygiene awareness for specific community groups is the focus of the scheme put forward by Cherwell District Council. The scheme builds on the success of an earlier project and will be delivered through secondary schools family centres and day centres, focussing on children, the elderly and ethnic groups reaching an audience of 1,000 people.
Courses will be focussed on the needs of each individual target group and resources used on the course will include videos, UV handwashing equipment and a magician who will deliver food hygiene messages in a fun and accessible way. The courses will be interactive and visual and all those attending will be given a resource pack to take away with them.
For adults, the course will involve a pub-style team quiz to encourage participation and to evaluate understanding, evaluation for children would be on an individual basis and feedback from target groups will also be collected.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Wendy Kingsbeer of Cherwell District Council at Wendy.Kingsbeer@Cherwell-DC.gov.uk .
Colchester Borough Council will be using an apron designed by local schoolchildren to get the 4Cs messages of the National Food Hygiene Campaign across. The apron will be distributed to all 1,300 food premises in the Borough.
The scheme is primarily aimed at reinforcing the 4Cs messages to the food trade, but the design of the apron will be open to all 14,000 schoolchildren in the Borough and will help spread these messages more widely. Food technology departments in schools will be targeted to promote the competition and to assess pupils ‘ understanding of food hygiene.
Employees in food premises will be encouraged to wear the aprons and staff will be asked if they can recall the messages contained on the apron during inspection visits.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Dave Barham of Colchester Borough Council at Dave.Barham@colchester.gov.uk .
A multi-layered approach to the 150 ethnic caterers in the region and the wider community is the focus of the scheme from East Riding of Yorkshire Council which aims to raise awareness of good food hygiene practice.
The scheme will be delivered through a combination of coverage through local ethnic radio, television and press to more specific initiatives targeting food businesses. The latter includes translated food hygiene information resources, as well as talks to community groups and caterers, in addition each business will be offered one free place on a Level One food hygiene training course. Building on this, an advisory visit to each caterer will be offered with an interpreter if appropriate. These visits will be supported by a range of supporting material in a variety of languages covering subject such as hazard analysis advice and specific food hygiene advice notes.
The scheme will be evaluated by changes to risk rating scores and enforcement activity generally as well as through a questionnaire to all caterers.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Dave Pinder of East Riding of Yorkshire District Council at Dave_Pinder/SSHPP/CH/ERC@eastriding.gov.uk .
North Norfolk Council has aimed its scheme at the 50 ethnic catering establishments dispersed both socially and geographically across its district and aims to work in partnership with them to raise awareness of food hygiene issues. The Council identified that due to communication difficulties, ethnic caterers within the district were not receiving equitable service provision in relation to the promotion of food hygiene.
Initially, the scheme will invite all ethnic caterers to participate in a focus group to identify need and appropriate approaches and teaching methods. Building on from this, a core of up to nine caterers covering the three main languages used in the district will be invited to participate in a training programme which will enable them to deliver a structured teaching programme to their own communities. This peer-led training programme will be delivered on site at a time and date suitable to the business and will be supported by a variety of teaching aids, some translated into Turkish, Cantonese and Bengali.
A questionnaire (in the main languages) will be used to identify any increase in knowledge and behavioural changes following on from the training programme and will focus on the effectiveness of this approach to improve food hygiene awareness.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Sonia Shuter of North Norfolk District Council at sshuter@north-norfolk.gov.uk .
The scheme from St Albans City and District Council links in closely with the Fuze Festival held in the City in June. This festival is organised in conjunction with the ethnic community and about 10,000 people are expected to attend.
The scheme focuses on two main activities during the festival, the first being a cookery demonstration by the 2002 National Curry Chef which will have a continuing message of handwashing running throughout. The demonstration will be followed up by walkabout when a theatre group will accompany the Chef. The theatre group will be using comedy to educate the public about food hygiene messages.
A video of the activities will be made to use as a training tool after the event and evaluation will be carried out after the event with the St Albans Asian Forum and with restaurateurs.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Carlton Lomax of St Albans City and District Council at c.lomax@stalbans.gov.uk .
Five Local Authorities have joined together to support this scheme put forward by the Tees Valley Food Safety Liaison Group. The scheme develops a television commercial which will be shown throughout the Tyne Tees region and could reach an audience of up to 900 thousand people.
The theme of the commercial will be food hygiene in relation to barbecued food and builds on radio work carried out last year throughout the North East. The commercial will focus on cross-contamination with handwashing as a key area and will be delivered in an informative manner with a humorous edge. A leaflet that will be distributed will accompany it via food outlets in the area to reinforce the food hygiene message.
The scheme will be monitored by means of pre- and post- campaign evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the commercial and to analyse its impact.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Rob Llewellyn of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council at Rob.Llewellyn@stockton.gov.uk .
Wyre Borough Council has fun firmly at the heart of its scheme, with hygiene messages aimed initially at around 1,200 primary school children aged 8-10.
The scheme involves development of teaching packs and a range of training resources for classroom work including a CD-ROM, a video, UV handwashing demonstration equipment and replica fridges and foods. The class-based activity will lead on to children taking 'secret agent' kits home for carrying out experiments in their own kitchens to check fridge temperatures and cross-contamination amongst other things.
The scheme will assess parents of children who have and have not been involved to test their comparative food hygiene knowledge. Changes in food preparation practices by parents of children involved in the scheme will also be evaluated as well as the children's pre- and post- scheme knowledge.
For further information on this scheme, you can contact Dave Watson of Wyre Borough Council at DWatson@wyrebc.gov.uk .
Find out about our different types of content