Health and safety gone mad, or a sensible idea?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2242739/Primary-school-bans-parents-baking-cakes-sell-Christmas-fair-unless-hold-food-hygiene-certificate.htm

[sp1814]

AOG

Did you read the full story?

[i]Sheffield Council education chiefs said that the guidance issued was supposed to apply to large outside contractors who sometimes cater for a major event and that they would be offering advice to the school.

A council spokesman: 'It wasn’t meant to refer to mums and dads volunteering to bake at home for school fairs and the like. We will be telling the school this.'

'We issued this in good faith but in the light of feedback from schools we will be reviewing the guidance and reassuring schools that it is fine for them to continue to use commonsense when inviting parents to contribute food to events.'[i]

So...not really 'health and safety gone mad' or even 'a sensible idea'. More 'a miscommunication that is being clarified by Sheffield Council.

Hoorah for the Daily Mail.

[pdq1]

Didn't they have a similar ban a few years back on the WI selling home made jam? Talking of hygiene what annoys many is those cookery programs on TV where chefs professional or otherwise have their long flowing hair hovering over the food. Once it was a custom to wear those white hats.

[anotheoldgit]

I don't know perhaps it is a good idea, witnessing the type of parents at some schools.

'YUK'

[sp1814]

pdq1

But there isn't a ban. It was a council recommendation that was misinterpreted. The ruling is that large companies supplying food to schools had to have a food hygiene certificate.

The women's institute story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213975/Tradition-selling-jam-used-jars-breaches-EU-health-safety-rules.html#ixzz28cCs7oC0

However, the truth is as follows:

I would like to reassure readers that there is no European Union legislation, new or old, that would prevent an individual volunteer for an organisation such as the Women's Institute from selling homemade preserves in recycled jam jars at their village fete or church fair.

The false impression seems to have come about after the Church of England advised parishes that the sale of jam in reused jars breached food hygiene regulations, citing guidance it had received from the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA).

However, the FSA's guidance is issued for food business operators and the agency has stated that someone making jam for an occasional event such as a fund-raiser would be unlikely to be considered a food business and therefore not affected by the regulations.

This has been confirmed by the European Commission.

The European Commission has already issued a full rebuttal of the story but, sadly, as is often the case, the euromyth seems to have spread much further than the truth.

In this instance the Daily Mail published the story on October 6th. The story went viral, and was republished in many other outlets.

The lesson - always best to check Daily Mail stories against other news sources...especially when it comes to EU 'bans'. They're generally not true (like the recent one about the EU banning Famous Five books...again - cobblers:

http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/mail-article-on-eu-banning-books.html

[rojash]

"always best to check Daily Mail stories against other news sources"

shouldn't that be:

"always best to check Daily Mail stories against news sources" ?

[Ann]

Ridiculous! Last year my friend and I both caught the Norovirus at exactly the same time and two days previously we shared a cream scone at a supermarket cafe, which was suspiciously like the cause of it. Who is to say the people who prepared it had washed their hands or were carriers unknown to themselves.............. they must have had hygiene certificates .........

[sp1814]

Anne86

I think in practice it would be very difficult to regulate if the measure was implemented.

Just because someone's got a hygiene certificate wouldn't guarentee that they were hygienic when preparing food from one event to another.

And think of the numbers of inspectors who would have to carry out checks and issue certificates on top of their work checking canteens, fast food take-aways, restaurants, cafes etc.

[sp1814]

Anne86

Just read up on the Norovirus. Sounds pretty nasty. Hope you didn't have it too bad!