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HYGIENIC FOOD HANDLING

Score 0 — Very good

A score of 0 is the best score you can receive for hygienic food handling and indicates a very good standard of compliance at the time of your assessment.

Your focus now should be on maintaining those standards — keeping good food handling practices consistent, monitoring important controls and making sure standards don’t slip as your business changes.

0
VERY GOOD Best component score
✓

Maintain good practices

✓

Keep important controls monitored

✓

Review standards regularly

i
Remember: Component scores work in the opposite direction to your overall food hygiene rating. For component scores, lower is better, so 0 represents the best standard.

What does a hygienic food handling score of 0 mean?

A score of 0 indicates a very good standard of compliance for hygienic food handling.

During the assessment, the food safety officer considers how food is handled in practice, including areas such as food preparation, cooking, reheating, cooling and storage, temperature control, personal hygiene and the prevention of cross-contamination.

For a business with a score of 0, the objective isn’t to make major changes. It is to maintain the standards and controls that are already working effectively and make sure they continue to be followed consistently.

Safe food preparation in a commercial kitchen

Temperature control

Continue monitoring temperatures where appropriate and make sure your existing controls remain effective.

Cross-contamination

Maintain effective separation and handling practices for raw and ready-to-eat foods.

Food handling

Keep good practices consistent during preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating and storage.

Personal hygiene

Continue reinforcing appropriate hand hygiene and hygienic working practices among food handlers.

Your aim: Keep doing what works, monitor your controls and deal with problems before they affect your standards.

Supporting good food handling

Explore practical products to help maintain good food handling standards, from personal hygiene and temperature monitoring to cross-contamination controls.

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MAINTAINING YOUR STANDARDS

Don’t let good standards slip

A Very good score reflects the standards found at the time of your assessment. Changes within the business can affect how consistently food safety controls are maintained, so it is important to keep reviewing how things are working in practice.

New or temporary staff

Make sure new, temporary and agency staff understand the food handling procedures relevant to their role before working unsupervised.

Menu changes

New dishes and ingredients can introduce different preparation, allergen, storage or temperature-control requirements. Review your controls when your menu changes.

New equipment

Make sure new equipment is suitable for its intended use, used correctly and incorporated into your existing food safety procedures where needed.

Busy periods

Increased workloads should not lead to established food safety controls being rushed, missed or bypassed during busy periods.

Changes to processes

Review your controls when you change how food is prepared, cooked, cooled, stored, transported or served.

Standards drifting over time

Observe working practices regularly rather than assuming procedures are still being followed. Small changes can become normal if they are not picked up early.

A Score 0 is something to maintain

Keep checking that your procedures are working in practice rather than waiting until the next food hygiene inspection to review your standards.

QUICK SELF-CHECK

Score 0 maintenance checklist

Use this quick checklist periodically to help confirm that the food handling standards and controls that contributed to your Very good score are still being followed in practice.

✓

Are food temperatures being controlled?

Check that temperature controls relevant to your business are still being followed and monitored effectively.

✓

Are raw and ready-to-eat foods suitably separated?

Review how food is stored, prepared and handled to make sure your cross-contamination controls continue to work in practice.

✓

Are staff following good food handling practices?

Observe day-to-day preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating and storage practices rather than relying only on written procedures.

✓

Are good personal hygiene practices being maintained?

Check that appropriate hand hygiene and hygienic working practices remain part of normal day-to-day routines.

✓

Are your existing controls still suitable?

Consider whether changes to staff, menus, equipment or processes mean any of your established food safety controls need reviewing.

✓

Are problems being dealt with when they are found?

Take action when standards begin to slip and check that any corrective measures have resolved the issue.

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