Button batteries - flat, disc shaped batteries - present a serious danger, particularly to babies and young children. Their shape and size makes them a considerable choking risk when placed in the mouth and swallowed as they can easily block the throat. However, button batteries present an even greater danger.
The chemicals within a button battery can react with saliva to create a highly corrosive acidic substance, like caustic soda. This acid causes very serious internal injuries, including burns and internal bleeding, and can cause death.
Therefore, it is really important that, wherever possible, you avoid using items that are powered by button batteries around children and babies, whether in the home or in an early years setting. This isn't always easy - button batteries are very widely used, in some obvious and some less expected items. For instance, here are some objects you might typically use around children that are likely to be powered by button batteries:
But also consider more obscure items - for instance, greeting cards, novelty T-shirts and flashing wellies. Many items that require electrical power and don't have replaceable batteries use button batteries, as they are cheap and small.
In a formal childcare or education setting, you must include button batteries within your risk assessments. At home, you can follow a similar process, and ensure that everyone in your home is aware of the dangers and carries out the same rigorous checks.
A risk assessment for button batteries should include:
Don't forget to check new electronic items that are introduced to the home or childcare setting - be especially alert around key gift giving times such as birthdays, Christmas and other celebrations.
If you believe a child might have swallowed a battery, take them to A&E or call an ambulance immediately. Keep the battery packaging or the product the battery was removed from to inform the emergency team. Do not make the child sick as this could cause further damage to a greater area.
The NHS advises that, if the child is 12 months or over, give two teaspoons of honey every ten minutes, as this may help reduce the possible damage.
The Safer Food Group offer Health and Safety training for Early Years professionals, educators and parents, including our Level 2 Health and Safety Early Years course, written in association with the Early Years Alliance. For more information about Safer Food Group training, visit www.thesaferfoodgroup.com
One of the most vital functions of an Early Years setting is ensuring the safety of the little ones in its care. That includes serving hygienically prepared, safe food. But do Early Years settings need to register as food businesses? We look at the facts below...
A food business is any organisation that handles, prepares, serves, sells, or distributes food to the public, even if they provide it for free. This includes schools, nurseries, and some charities (depending on their food operations’ size, nature, and frequency). Even if your organisation doesn’t qualify as a food business, you must still follow food safety laws for any food you cook, store, handle, prepare, or distribute.
If your nursery, pre-school, playgroup, school, out-of-hours setting, or childminding service prepares or serves food, you are a food business. In most cases, you must register with your local authority. This doesn’t just apply to meals—providing snacks or drinks (other than tap water) also qualifies you.
The exception is childminders in England. While they must meet food safety standards, Ofsted handles their registration with the local authority. In Scotland, childminders must complete a registration form for their local authority. In Northern Ireland and Wales, childminders must register directly with their local authority, just like any other food business.
Once you register as a food business, your local food safety team will receive your details. They ensure your standards meet requirements and may inspect your premises at any reasonable time, potentially (but not often) unannounced. After your first inspection, they will typically revisit every two years, though businesses with lower standards may face more frequent checks. Inspectors check hygiene, safe food preparation, and whether you have a proper food safety management system.
After inspecting, the food safety team will give you feedback, highlighting areas for improvement and offering advice. They will also award a food hygiene rating from 1 to 5 stars (5 being the best). You can search these ratings on the Food Standards Agency database, and some areas require you to display them.
Childminders in England registered with Ofsted typically face fewer inspections, usually only if someone raises a concern about food hygiene. Since they operate from home, inspectors must arrange visits in advance.
The Food Standards Agency’s Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) packs set out the standards for food businesses, including caterers and childminders. These guidelines help you maintain consistent food safety. It states that you must keep your premises clean, handle food safely, and store it correctly.
Inspectors will check your systems as well as your premises. You must have a food safety management system that documents hygiene, cooking, chilling, and cross-contamination procedures. You must also undertake and record regular checks. SFBB also recommends food hygiene training for all staff handling food, as it shows you take food safety seriously and ensure staff understand their responsibilities.
Food hygiene training isn’t just important—it’s a legal requirement. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework states that "all staff involved in preparing and handling food must receive training in food hygiene."
When choosing training, consider whether face-to-face or online works best. Face-to-face allows you to ask questions and is more interactive, but it is rigid in time and location. Online training is more structured, but provides more flexibility on time and location, often costs less, and suits younger staff.
Next, find a provider who understands Early Years settings. Check their free content (like this article!) or course portfolio to gauge their expertise. If they offer multiple Early Years courses (e.g., food hygiene and health and safety), you can streamline training for your team in one place. This will allow your team to familiarise themselves with the platform and make record-keeping easier.
At The Safer Food Group, we combine our expertise in food safety with strong connections in the Early Years sector. We offer a suite of courses modified specifically for Early Years staff. Our tailored courses include:
Developed in collaboration with the Early Years Alliance, these courses keep you up to date, including the latest EYFS changes coming in September 2025.
Also part of our Early Years training suite:
Following a government consultation, the latest Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS 2025) was released on 14th July 2025. The EYFS is a statutory framework that sets standards of care, learning and development for early years (0-5 years) settings in the UK. These include pre-schools, private nurseries and childminders. Settings have until 1st September 2025 to implement the changes, which have been made in the following areas:
The new Safer Eating regulations, 3.63 – 3.70, sit within the Food and Drink section. They appear on pages 27-28 in the EYFS Statutory Framework for Childminders and on pages 36-37 in the EYFS Statutory Framework for Group and School based providers.
The measures included in this section are:
For the report on the initial consultation that drove these measures, see p.27 of Early Years Foundation Stage safeguarding reforms - consultation response
Food allergy policy is a key element that is included in the EYFS 2025 update. The published government response emphasis the requirement for ongoing communication between settings, parents, carers and in some cases, healthcare professionals, regarding allergies and intolerances. Allergy action plans should be developed, reviewed regularly and shared with all staff. The response also highlights that children can develop allergies at any time, with the introduction of solid foods being a potential trigger. At each mealtime and snack time, a specific person must be responsible for checking that food is safe for the child consuming it.
The EYFS 2025 is not expected to contain any updated regulations for food hygiene policy. Settings should continue to ensure that:
For more information about your legal obligations when serving food, visit https://www.thesaferfoodgroup.com/knowledge/do-early-years-settings-need-to-register-as-a-food-business/
As an early years educator, practitioner, manager, setting owner or childminder, make yourself familiar with the 2025 reforms now, in readiness for any changes you need to make. Changes needed in your setting may include:
In preparation for EYFS 2025, the government published updated guidelines for Early Years nutrition. As part of EYFS 2025, providers are required to follow this nutrition guidance unless there is good reason not to. These guidelines are already available here: Early Years Foundation Stage nutrition - GOV.UK.
The full and final versions of EYFS (2025) were released on 14th July 2025 and must be implemented within settings in time for 1st September 2025.
The Safer Food Group works in collaboration with the Early Years Alliance to create unique health and safety training that gets to the heart of day to day challenges faced by early years settings. These include Level 2 Food Hygiene (Early Years), Level 2 Allergy Awareness (Early Years), and Level 2 Health and Safety (Early Years). EYA members can access SFG’s Food Hygiene and Allergy Awareness for Early Years via EYA Central, with Health and Safety for Early Years coming soon. Visit EYA Central to view the full range of courses for Early Years teams.
Food hygiene is a set of processes that a food business can incorporate into their operations in order to ensure the food that prepare, serve and sell is safe for their customers to eat. It is an important part of food safety, which starts right at the beginning of the food supply chain. Food hygiene training is an important part of creating a good food safety culture in any food business. The quality of a team's food hygiene training is an important measure for EHO checks; see further info on the Food Standards Agency website.
Food hygiene training (sometimes referred to as food safety training) is the process that teaches food handlers how to produce safe food. Good food hygiene training covers the following topics:
Reputable food hygiene training courses will offer a food hygiene certificate on successful completion of the course and exam. Beware food training courses that appear to be free - they often spring unexpected and inflated charges on you to secure the certificate after you've finished the course!
Whether you are an established cook or looking for your first role in catering, a food hygiene certificate is an important part of your toolkit. We look at the top 5 reasons for passing your food safety course before you apply for that dream job.
This one should go without saying. The fundamental reason for taking a Level 2 Food hygiene course is to learn the principles of preparing safe food – it’s that simple! Understanding food safety challenges such as cross-contamination and knowing the difference between a Best-Before and a Use-By date are really important skills in a kitchen. Having an up-to-date certificate to show you have already mastered these skills gives an employer confidence before you even arrive for an interview and helps you hit the ground running.
This one is especially important when you are starting out in the food industry, perhaps looking for your very first food industry job. A food hygiene certificate demonstrates that you are genuinely interested enough in the sector to invest in your own training. For an entry level food handler role, you won’t need to break the bank – Level 2 Food Safety (previously known as Basic Food Hygiene) is usually sufficient, and you can buy a single online course for £12+ VAT. BUT – there are lots of courses out there, and they vary in quality – make sure you look for a course that is accredited by a reputable body, such as Qualifi or CPD
Roles in catering and hospitality are generally busy and at some point you may be working without supervision. You need to be able to make the right decisions when working alone, and taking food related training courses, such as Food Safety, HACCP and Allergy Awareness, will help you to do that.
This is the scary one. As a food handler, you have a legal responsibility to do everything you reasonably can to make sure the food you serve is safe to eat. A good food hygiene course will explain your legal responsibilities and those of your employers and supervisors.
The food industry is becoming increasingly focussed on the environmental impact of food waste. Having a good understanding of food safety practices – especially fridge and freezer temperatures, food labelling and hot-holding, cooling and reheating methods – will enable you to do your bit in the war on waste. And for your employer, that means cost savings too – a big win-win!
Once you've received your certificate, it's time to look for opportunities. There are many routes to explore - word of mouth, employment agencies and local social media groups are a good starting place. Remember to research various online platforms like Jooble UK that offer a wide range of careers for chefs. These allow you to set your own parameters, such as location, type of employment and salary range.
Food Safety courses are readily available online, and can generally be taken in your own time, at your own pace. Good training providers will allow you to sample course content before you buy to check it is right for you – so perhaps a better question would be: ‘Why wouldn’t I need a Food Hygiene certificate?’
It is important to serve safe, hygienic food to everyone – but in education settings, it is especially important to keep young bodies and brains protected and nourished, and immune and digestive systems developing safely. Understanding food borne illness and how to prevent it is important for anyone who works with children, and food hygiene training in schools is a crucial tool in improving skills.
This depends on your role – if preparing and serving food is a small part of your role, and someone else is instructing or supervising you, a Level 2 Food Hygiene award should be adequate. If you are running the kitchen, putting processes and plans in place, and supervising others, you might want to look at a Level 3 Food Hygiene award. This gives you some insight into management level skills and a greater background knowledge of food safety.
If you already work in a school or college, your employer may have a preferred training provider for food hygiene. If you’re looking for a course yourself, you can choose to study a face to face or online. Think about what is important to you before you decide – cost, convenience, being able to recap material and study at your pace, or being able to ask questions?
Look for a course that is designed for early years practitioners, especially at Level 2. Courses such as those offered by The Safer Food Group cover specific situations and details that will be relevant in your role.
Also, consider whether you’ll need any additional training. For instance, do you need to learn about Allergen Management, or Nutrition for your setting? If so, look for a training provider who can cover all of these subjects – you’ll have all your training details held in one place, and you’ll build up a comfortable familiarity with the teaching methodology.
Have a look at our free guide below. It covers menu planning, food safety, hygiene and allergens, and provides links to some great free resources for school cooks.
Click here to access our free resource for school caterers
Increasing recent investment in and focus on textured modified foods have led to significant improvement in the meals offered to patients with dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) in health and care settings. These include the development and implementation of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation System (IDSSI) - a framework that offers clear descriptors of varying levels of food modification, helping healthcare providers and caterers communicate clearly and meet the needs of their patients.
By its nature, textured modified food is often offered to some of the most vulnerable patients - so food safety has to be a key priority in its preparation. We look at some of the key challenges raised when preparing these foods.
Pathogenic bacteria need food, moisture and warmth to thrive; the ideal temperature range for most pathogens is between 8°C and 63°C. In any food service, good food safety includes keeping food either above or below the Danger Zone as far as possible, and handling quickly and efficiently during preparation. The extra processes involved in textured modified food means it can spend longer in the Danger Zone, so it is important that food handling staff:
Ensuring that the times and temperatures advised by the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) or Foods Standards Scotland (FSS) are always met is a key factor in minimising the presence of pathogens.
Standard FSA advice (use in England, Wales and NI) is to cook food until it has reached a core temperature of 70°C for 2 minutes.
The other time and temperature combinations are:
Hot food when held must be kept at 63°C or above. You can keep it below 63°C for up to two hours. If it has not been used within two hours, you should either:
The FSS advice (use in Scotland) is:
Reheating food more than once increases the likely presence of pathogens. It can be tempting to re-chill uneaten food, especially modified food that has involved extra care and attention, but the risk is too great. Use careful portion control to suit the people you are catering for - this has the added benefit that a smaller portion can be more appealing to someone who has dysphagia.
EHOs report that bulky kitchen equipment, such as bains-marie, food processors and industrial tin openers are commonly the most neglected items in the kitchen cleaning schedule. Warm, soft, moist, protein rich food that has lodged in hard to reach places can be especially hard to clean, but is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The extensive use of these types of equipment in food modification puts these foods at greater risk of contamination so ensure every piece of equipment in your kitchen is included in your HACCP cleaning schedule and the standards of cleaning are checked regularly.
None of the above food safety practices are unique to the preparation of texture modified foods, but they are areas that may require extra focus in this type of preparation. Always ensure that all food handler staff in health and care settings are suitably trained and / or supervised for their roles. The Safer Food Group offers a range of food safety training for food industry workers: www.thesaferfoodgroup.com.
This article was written in conjunction with Andy Cullum, the iddsi guy, who offers comprehensive training in dysphagia modification of food and drink.
High quality care comes in many forms. When dealing with vulnerable people in a care setting, listening skills, patience and empathy often come to the fore, but knowledge and application of high food standards are equally important. Poor food safety standards can add to or even create serious health conditions, whereas good quality food is an important part of life for many older or vulnerable people, both from a physical and mental health perspective.
A good knowledge of food safety is also important in a supported living setting. Helping residents understand and apply these principles is vital; especially so when facing challenges such as poor eyesight, sense of smell, lack of previous cooking experience or learning difficulties. Being able to understand, apply and convey food safety information to others is a crucial skill for many carers.
In brief, good food safety is centred on preventing contaminants from entering food, from spreading from one food to another and from multiplying. This reduces risk of harm from pathogenic bacteria, physical and chemical contaminants, and allergens.
Positive actions that uphold food safety include:
Consider a training program that is suited to your set up. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), food handlers must be 'supervised, instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activities', so in a typical care setting, Level 2 Food Hygiene training will be adequate for most team member, with Level 3 training appropriate for supervisors or those looking to expand their role. Food hygiene training may also be useful for residents in a supported living setting. Look for a course that is accessible, engaging and can be studied at an appropriate pace, or alongside a support worker.
Food safety compliance within the care sector is monitored both by the CQC and the FSA.
Safety is one of the fundamental standards by which the CQC assesses care settings, and as such, condition of catering facilities are subject to inspection.
As part of their inspection, the CQC inspector will check whether food preparation and storage is safe and sanitary, and whether the site employs a food safety management system (e.g. HACCP).
Care homes are also subject to the standard legislation under which all food businesses operate. As such, they will be subject to the regular inspections carried out by their local authority. FSA (or FSS in Scotland) ratings are awarded based on these inspections, which examine a site's premises, food handling processes and confidence in their food safety management and culture. For more information about the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, follow this link to The Safer Food Group's free course.
The Safer Food Group offers straight forward, easy to follow training courses for everyone wanting to expand their food safety knowledge, including food professionals. Our recently updated Level 2 Food Hygiene course has full accessibility features, engaging interactions, and allows the learner to study at a pace that suits them. Our video clips offer a human introduction into our written course material, which is accompanied by a downloadable course booklet, that can be kept for future reference.
For more information visit our website, drop us a line at info@thesaferfoodgroup.com or call 0800 612 6784.
Click here to download an example Scout Group Allergen Statement.
Are you using your food operation to provide new skills and experience to members of your community? The Safer Food Group has created a Skills and Competency framework for kitchen assistants; this framework suggests a list of useful food preparation skills to be covered, and once completed forms a record of evidence for the trainee to take away.
Download the framework.
Every food business in the UK has a legal responsibility to:
A very important part of fulfilling this legal duty is creating a Food Safety Management system (FSMS). A Food Safety Management System built on HACCP principles is a systematic, preventative approach used by food businesses to identify, evaluate, and control food safety hazards. The key reason for operating a FSMS is to ensure that you and your team have the tools and processes in place to produce safe food, consistently.
A FSMS can be divided into two elements - a Prerequisite plan and a HACCP plan.
The pre-requisite plan is the list of standard requirements that have to be in place within your workplace to be able to produce safe food. They include basic hygiene, operational, and environmental conditions.
Food safety prerequisites include:
Prerequisites may seem like common sense, but they are absolutely fundamental. As these are the foundations on which your safe food business must be built, these prerequisites must be in place before you start to implement your HACCP plan. Without these food safety basics, any measures you bring in to support your HACCP plan are likely to be ineffective.
HACCP is a system of risk assessment, originally created by NASA scientists, that breaks the process into seven logical steps. HACCP stands for:
HA: Hazard Analysis
CCP: Critical control points
Under the principles of HACCP, all safety risks are identified (Hazard Analysis) and appropriate measures (Critical Control Points) are put in place to either remove these risks or reduce them to a safe level .
Step 1: Conduct a Hazard Analysis
Identify all potential biological (e.g., bacteria), chemical (e.g., cleaning agents), physical (e.g., glass) and allergenic (e.g. gluten) hazards that could occur at every step of food preparation, from goods-in to service.
Determine which of these hazards are significant and must be addressed by the HACCP plan.
Step 2: Determine Critical Control Points (CCPs)
Identify the steps in the process where control is essential to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a significant hazard to an acceptable level.
Example: The cooking step for raw chicken is a CCP because it's the last chance to eliminate pathogens such as Salmonella through heat.
Step 3: Establish Critical Limits
Set the maximum or minimum value that a CCP must meet to prevent the hazard. This limit is the pass/fail boundary.
Example: The critical limit for cooking chicken might be an internal temperature of 75 degrees C for 15 seconds.
Step 4: Establish Monitoring Procedures
Define how the CCP will be regularly measured and observed to ensure the Critical Limit is met. This includes what will be measured, who will measure it, how often, and how.
Example: Using a calibrated probe thermometer to check the internal temperature of every batch of chicken at the end of the cooking process and recording the result.
Step 5: Establish Corrective Actions
Determine the immediate steps to be taken if monitoring shows a CCP is not at the correct level
Example: If the chicken only reaches 65 degrees C, the corrective action is to continue cooking it until the 75 degrees C limit is reached.
Step 6: Establish Verification Procedures
Set procedures to review the entire HACCP system and confirm that it is working effectively (i.e., that the plan is valid and being followed).
Example: Review the monitoring records weekly, and calibrate thermometers regularly.
Step 7: Establish Documentation and Record-Keeping (Principle 7)
Keep accurate records of all procedures and data, including the hazard analysis, the CCPs, the monitoring checks, and any corrective actions taken. This is essential for demonstrating compliance during regulatory inspections.
According to law, if you operate a food business in the UK, you must have a food safety management system based on HACCP principles. The responsibility for this plan ultimately sits with the business owner / operator - but it is important that the plan is created by someone who has an accurate, working knowledge of day to day operations. In order to be useful and comprehensive, that plan must reflect the way the business works, and controls must be achievable. Ideally, like any risk assessment, creating HACCP plan should involve the thoughts and feedback of the people who will be expected to use it.
It can be tempting to treat a HACCP plan as a one off activity; once all plans and control measures are in place, your operation is safe. But many factors can change - people, menus, legislation, ingredients, best practice, equipment etc. Because of this your HACCP must be an evolving plan, that is regularly reviewed and changes with your business. You should review your plan with your team annually - and at any time a major change happens within your business that affects your orignal hazard analysis.
For small food businesses, the Safer Food, Better Business resource provided by the Food Standards Agency is a great place to start. This book walks you through each area of your business and tells you what you need to look out for, what records you need to keep, and how often you need to review your processes.
Safer Food, Better Business highlights the importance of good record keeping when producing food that is safe to eat. Good recordkeeping instils a culture of diligence within your food business and will also help prove to an EHO that you are doing things right.
The key records that most food businesses will need to keep are:
For more information, The Safer Food Group offer a Level 2 HACCP awareness course that looks into each area of Food Management in closer detail, explaining how to get it right – and what can happen when you don’t!
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