Level 4 Award n Managng Food Safety n Caterng Canddate gudelnes Ths qualfcaton meets ndustry s need for a hgh-level practcal tranng programme wth external accredtaton. The syllabus and assessments have been developed wth reference to the QCF unt H/502/0390. The tranng programme s delvered by CIEH regstered centres and traners and conssts of at least 36 hours of teachng tme, typcally over fve or more days. To acheve the award you must undertake a controlled assgnment based on your chosen workplace and take a wrtten examnaton. Successful canddates wll be able to: gude and advse on the management of food safety n a caterng busness contrbute to the management of food safety n a caterng busness dentfy further techncal knowledge necessary n food safety management procedures determne further tranng requrements dentfy areas for legal complance determne good practce desgn an mprovement plan outlne a HACCP-type plan promote and encourage good standards of food safety lase wth enforcement offcers delver level 1 and 2 food safety tranng (wth approprate tranng sklls). The programme s deal for: owners or managers of caterng busnesses traners supervsors wth level 3 food safety knowledge those who montor and audt food safety systems. Stock Code 4FNCCG
Syllabus A Introducton to food safety management Canddates should understand the relatonshp between food safety and the soco-economc cost of food-borne llness and s able to: v v Outlne the economc costs to employers and the personnel costs of food-borne llnesses. Explan the benefts to the employer of hgh standards of food safety. Descrbe the manager s role n managng food safety. State the trend n the ncdence of reported cases of food-borne llnesses over recent years and the foods that are most commonly nvolved. Explan the reasons for seasonal varatons and the groups most at rsk n reported outbreaks of food-borne llness. B Ensurng complance wth legslaton and ndustry gudance Canddates should understand the format of UK and European food safety legslaton as t relates to the management of food safety n a caterng busness and be able to: Understand the applcaton of EC Drectves to member states. Explan the key aspects of present UK legslaton. Descrbe the role of ndustry gudes and codes of practce. v State how legslaton s appled, actons that may be taken by enforcement offcers and the consequences of non-complance. v State the responsbltes of propretors, managers, supervsors and food handlers towards food safety. v Explan the role that managers have n communcatng food safety to staff. v State the responsblty that managers have towards the mantenance of approprate food safety records and demonstratng due dlgence. v Descrbe the role of management when workng wth enforcement offcers to nvestgate an outbreak of foodborne llness. C Food safety hazards Canddates should understand the potental for food contamnaton and how t can be controlled n a caterng busness and be able to: Explan the hazards assocated wth skn njures and nfectons, wearng of jewellery, nal varnsh, nadequate protectve clothng, personal bad habts and practces. Descrbe the most common ntrnsc and extrnsc physcal contamnants, nherent and ntroduced chemcal contamnants (ncludng mycotoxns), mcrobal contamnants (ncludng bacteral toxns) and food allergens and explan the controls for preventon, detecton and removal. State, wth examples, the symptoms of acute and chronc food-borne llness caused by some chemcals, posonous plants and certan types of fsh. v Descrbe the structure, shape and sze of bactera, the functons of spores and ther role n the survval of bactera and descrbe toxn formaton and dstngush between exotoxns and endotoxns. v Explan how bactera multply, the nfluencng factors, the generaton tmes and the sgnfcance of the growth curve. v Explan the prncples nvolved n usng tme and temperature to control mcrobal and enzyme actvty n food. v Explan the methods used to dentfy bactera. v State the dfferences between food posonng and foodborne nfecton and the symptoms of llness they cause. x State the sources, common foods nvolved, ncdences, vehcles, routes of transmsson, onset tmes, symptoms, lkely carrer status and control measures for Salmonella spp, Clostrdum perfrngens, Staphylococcus Aureus, Clostrdum botulnum, Bacllus cereus, Vbro parahaemolytcus, E-col and E-col O157, Bacllary dysentery, Lstera monocytogenes, Salmonella Typh and Salmonella Paratyph, Campylobacter enterts, vruses, moulds and parastes. D Allocaton of responsbltes Canddates should understand and be able to allocate responsbltes and practce the management sklls requred to ensure food safety and be able to: v v v State the personal requrements necessary for a food handler and explan the need for careful staff selecton. State why all staff have responsbltes n respect of food safety. State the controls necessary n respect of persons sufferng from, or suspected of, sufferng from food-borne llness. Explan the problems caused by carrers and the controls that can be mplemented n a caterng envronment. State how changes of menu and operatons can affect food safety procedures and how these can be managed. Explan how non-food personnel, such as mantenance staff, vstors and delvery persons, can contamnate food and how ths can be managed. E Managng the operatonal requrements of a safe food busness Canddates should understand the mportance of premse and equpment desgn to keep food safe and be able to: v Descrbe the crtera used n selectng a sutable ste for a food premses and the nternal desgn wth regard to work flow, personnel facltes, waste dsposal and adequate cleanng and dsnfecton. Explan how standards are mantaned n respect of transportng food and outsde caterng. Explan the mportance and use of sutable materals for work surfaces, snks and food equpment. Descrbe the desgn features and propertes of food equpment.
v Explan the requrements for effcent and hygenc use of chllers, refrgerated and frozen food storage unts. v Establsh a prorty lst for repars and mprovements based on food safety rsks. v Explan the prncples nvolved wth methods of preservaton and how preserved foods should be stored. v Explan the role of safe storage of food to mnmse contamnaton and how stock control systems can be mplemented, montored and recorded. x Explan the role of safe food handlng practces commonly used n caterng wth partcular reference to vulnerable groups. F Cleanng and dsnfecton regmes Canddates should understand the prncples and procedures for the satsfactory cleanng and dsnfecton of food premses and be able to: v Explan the need for and benefts of cleanng and the prncples of mplementng and managng a cleanng system ncludng safe storage of cleanng materals. Defne the terms cleanng, detergent, dsnfecton, santser and sterlsaton and the propertes requred for the chemcals used for each process. Descrbe cleanng processes, ncludng CIP, for a range of actvtes, areas and equpment n a caterng premse. Descrbe the management and admnstratve functons n relaton to cleanng and cleanng schedules. G Suppler qualty and safety controls Canddates should understand the mportance of good raw materal ntake and be able to: Explan the mportance of purchasng only from relable sources. Descrbe the methods that can be used to assess the safety of ncomng stock and food equpment. Descrbe the requrements for safe transport, delvery and recept of stock. H Pest controls Canddates should understand the need for the control of food pests n premses used for caterng and be able to: Explan the habtat and characterstcs of food pests, such as rats, mce, fles, cockroaches, psocds, pharaohs ants, stored product nsects and brds and the reasons for controllng them n food premses. Explan the envronmental, physcal and chemcal methods of controllng food pests, ncludng ther lmtatons. Explan the mportance of obtanng and/or utlsng professonal advce or personnel, and montorng the effectveness of ther methods. I Establsh food safety management procedures Canddates should understand the seven basc prncples of the HACCP system and how these can be appled to a food safety management system for a caterng enterprse and be able to: Explan the mportance of mplementng a food safety management procedure and how t can be appled to varous caterng busnesses. Explan how to develop a food safety system, ncludng composton of a food safety management team. Produce product workflow dagrams for a range of dshes and explan how they can be verfed. J Montorng the mplementaton of food safety management procedures Canddates should understand the mportance of mplementng a safe food procedure and be able to: v v Explan how hazards are dentfed and how they are assessed as beng crtcal to food safety. State how crtcal lmts are set, mplemented, ncludng tolerance parameters, recorded and montored. Explan how correctve actons are mplemented f controls are not met and managed. Establsh procedures to verfy the effcency of the food safety management system. State how changes of menu and operatons can affect food safety procedures and how changes can be managed. K Mantanng food safety management procedures Canddates should understand the mportance of system evaluaton and communcaton of change and be able to: v Explan the mportance of montorng and revewng procedures and respondng to problems. Explan the mportance of regular management nspectons and nternal audts. State how the food safety management procedure can be communcated to all staff and develop a communcaton system when changes n procedure occur. Establsh procedures to evaluate and revew the food safety management procedure. L Communcaton, sources of nformaton and tranng Canddates should be able to communcate staff responsbltes wthn a food management system and be able to: v Descrbe how food safety procedures can be communcated to all staff responsble for ts mplementaton, mantenance, montorng and evaluaton to develop and mantan a food safety culture. v Descrbe the sources of further nformaton and gudance on food safety and food safety management systems and acknowledge when ths may be requred. v State the need for, and benefts of, food safety tranng. v Explan the factors to be consdered n the development, content and methods of effectve food safety tranng programmes requred for all assocated personnel. x Explan the use and beneft of assessng tranng needs and the mantenance of tranng records.
Overvew The CIEH Level 4 Award n Managng Food Safety n Caterng programme s ntended to help you to develop knowledge and sklls n key areas of food safety management, as descrbed n the syllabus. Ths secton provdes you, the canddate, wth advce on how to approach the programme, how to organse any extra study tme you may need, and how to prepare for the controlled assgnment and wrtten examnaton. All CIEH regstered traners work n accordance wth the CIEH Traners Charter, so f durng your programme you are unclear about how well you are learnng or what s requred, you should speak to the traner as soon as possble so that you can receve further assstance. Whether you are used to studyng or takng examnatons or not, you should spend a few mnutes to read these notes carefully and f there s anythng you don t understand you should ask your traner for advce. Try to remember that the purpose of the tranng programme, controlled assgnment and examnaton s to help you to be more effectve when you are at work. You should be gven a copy of ths gudance at the begnnng of your programme.
How to approach the programme Before the programme If you have receved ths nformaton n advance, you may have the opportunty to do some preparaton for the tranng. It s probably best to ask the person who booked you onto the programme to fnd out f any preparaton s necessary. All programmes are dfferent so t may be that the traner does not requre any pre-programme readng or other actvty. However, t s always worth speakng to a lne manager, f you have one, about what you want to get from the tranng, apart from the qualfcaton of course! If you do not have a lne manager, you could try speakng to the traner or centre organsaton drectly, but n any event take some tme to thnk through your objectves for undertakng the tranng and what you want to acheve. Durng the programme The CIEH Level 4 Award n Managng Food Safety n Caterng programme s delvered over a perod of tme (mnmum of 36 tranng hours) so there s plenty of tme to develop your understandng. It s mportant to make sure that f you experence any dffcultes n the materal or subjects beng presented, you talk to your traner as soon as you can. It s probably best to rase problems at the end of the tranng day or durng one of the breaks, although you should also feel free to rase questons durng any of the tranng sessons. Most programmes wll ether be accompaned by sesson notes or by a textbook chosen from several recommended ttles. It s good practce to take your own notes so that you can look back and reflect on the dscussons and learnng ponts. Partcularly durng group work or exercses make sure that you record the conclusons even f someone else volunteers to gve the feedback. If your traner gves work to be done between days.e. homework always make sure you attempt t. Ths wll gve you a chance to check out your understandng and may even gve you some examnaton practce.
Programme nformaton 1 Programme structure 1.1 The programme must cover the syllabus n a mnmum contact tme of 36 hours. Contact tme s the tme taken to delver actual tranng and does not nclude assgnment preparaton work, refreshment breaks, revson sessons, or mock examnatons. 1.2 Tranng centres formulate the programme structure to sut clents needs. The tranng programme must cover the whole syllabus. 1.3 Ideally the tranng should be traner-led wth as many opportuntes as possble for canddate partcpaton and may nclude ste vsts, ndvdual or group exercses. Tme taken for ste vsts should be n addton to the mnmum recommended programme length. 1.4 In addton to the tranng, you are requred to prepare a scopng document for the controlled assgnment. Ths document, whch descrbes certan aspects of your chosen workplace, must be submtted wth the controlled assgnment. If you are not currently employed, you can base your scopng document on a prevous workplace or wll have to gan work experence suffcent to produce the detals requred to complete a scopng document. Traners are permtted to offer gudance (wth reference to the exemplar scopng document), but you must complete your own scopng document. The scopng document s not assessed, but wll be referred to by the marker/moderator of the controlled assgnment. 1.5 The CIEH provdes exemplar scopng documents and sample controlled assgnments, examnaton questons and answer nformaton. You can obtan these from your traner or centre. 1.6 You must attend at least 80% of the programme to be elgble to take the examnaton. If your programme attendance s below 80% and no specal crcumstances have prevaled, you wll be automatcally faled. 1.7 The controlled assgnment and the wrtten examnaton should be completed on the same day. If ths s not possble, both assessments must be completed wthn a perod of seven days. 2 The controlled assgnment 2.1 Pror to undertakng the controlled assgnment, you are requred to produce a scopng document of your chosen workplace. You should complete the scopng document form provded by your traner. Ths form asks you to descrbe your chosen workplace, the type of food prepared and your role. You should not exceed the word lmt of 500 words. 2.2 You should take the scopng document wth you to refer to when you st the controlled assgnment. The scopng document should be submtted wth the controlled assgnment to ad the process of markng/moderaton. 2.3 The controlled assgnment s completed under examnaton condtons. 2.4 The controlled assgnment comprses two sectons: the frst s based on HACCP prncples and the second on the applcaton of food safety management. Both sectons must be completed wth reference to your chosen workplace. 2.5 The controlled assgnment s worth 100 marks. The pass mark for the controlled assgnment s 60. 2.6 You have two hours to complete the controlled assgnment, but you may leave the examnaton room after one hour. 3 The examnaton 3.1 The examnaton s desgned to test your knowledge and understandng of food safety so poor grammar and spellng mstakes wll not matter. The questons are not desgned to trp you up there are no trck questons. 3.2 The examnaton paper conssts of fve structured questons each consstng of several parts requrng short answers n spaces provded on the examnaton paper tself. You are expected to answer all the questons. Each queston s worth 20 marks. You wll have 2½ hours to complete the examnaton. The pass mark for the exam s 60. 3.3 Each secton of each queston has a mark allocaton shown n brackets for example (3 marks). Obvously a queston wth 3 marks wll requre more nformaton than one wth only 1 mark. Beng aware of ths may help you to plan your tme better. 3.4 The three most common reasons for losng marks are: Not readng the queston properly Make sure you understand the queston before you begn the answer. If you are asked to Gve three of... gve the best three you can thnk of rather than the frst three that come nto your head. In addton f you read the whole queston frst, you are less lkely to mss the pont or answer somethng that s dealt wth elsewhere n the same queston. Not gvng enough detal You should always provde the fullest answer you can n the space provded. The examners who mark papers cannot gve credt f the answers are not clear or do not have suffcent detal. One-word answers are rarely suffcent. Leavng parts of questons unanswered Ths mght be because you aren t sure of the answer but f you gve no answer at all you wll automatcally lose those marks. In a case lke ths, and as a last resort, you should make an educated guess. 3.5 Some canddates do not manage ther tme well and fnd they cannot complete the paper n 2½ hours. Keep a regular check on the clock and avod spendng too much tme on one queston.
4 Pass marks 4.1 The fnal mark you wll be awarded s the average of the marks acheved n the controlled assgnment and the examnaton. Canddates who acheve an average mark of 60 74 wll acheve a pass grade, those achevng 75 89 wll be awarded a mert grade and those achevng 90 and above wll be awarded a dstncton grade. Canddates who do not acheve at least 60 marks wll be deemed to have faled. 4.2 If, for any reason, you do not acheve a pass grade, you wll be referred. You wll be gven one opportunty to re-st the controlled assgnment and/or examnaton upon submsson of the approprate canddate entry fee. Re-sts must be taken wthn sx months of the date that the results are released. If you do not re-st wthn sx months of the date the results are released, or fal your second attempt, you are requred to complete the whole programme agan re-sttng the controlled assgnment and the examnaton. 5 Results 5.1 Results take approxmately 6 8 weeks to process as the controlled assgnments and examnaton papers are sent to a marker and then on to a moderator for standardsaton. Documents submtted for assessment cannot be returned to the canddate. 5.2 The CIEH regrets that t cannot gve results drectly to ndvdual canddates. 5.3 If, after the results have been verfed, you are dssatsfed wth your mark and grade, the CIEH has an appeals procedure. If you wsh to make an appeal, you must do so through your CIEH centre wthn 28 days of the results beng receved. 5.4 If you do not pass frst tme, you wll receve feedback from your traner on your performance that should help you prepare to re-st the controlled assgnment and/or examnaton. 6 Next steps 6.1 By achevng the CIEH Level 4 Award n Managng Food Safety n Caterng, you wll have developed a level of food safety knowledge that s hghly regarded not only n the UK, but also around the world. Ths wll enable you to take on responsbltes for managng food safety on behalf of your organsaton. 6.2 You wll need to keep up to date on a regular bass and especally f your area of ndustry s complex or rapdly changng. 6.3 You may also be elgble to apply to be a CIEH traner to delver programmes leadng to the CIEH level 1 and level 2 food safety qualfcatons, provded you have a tranng qualfcaton and approprate work experence. Please contact Customer Servces on 020 7827 5800 or e-mal customerservces@ceh.org for more nformaton. We hope that you fnd ths nformaton helpful and we wsh you good luck n your current and future studes. If you have any queres regardng aspects of the nformaton provded n these gudelnes, please contact your regstered traner or tranng centre.
Customer Servces Chartered Insttute of Envronmental Health Chadwck Court, 15 Hatfelds, London SE1 8DJ Telephone 020 7827 5800 (Opton 1) Emal customerservces@ceh.org Web www.ceh.org/tranng CIEH, 2010 Prnted November 2010