Una Crilly, Food Safety Manager - Dunnes Stores
Dunnes Stores are committed to selling safe, quality foods to our customers.
All food must be handled safely from the production site through distribution
and into our stores. Food Safety must be planned and requires appropriately
deployed resources with the implementation of effective hazard analysis, control
and monitoring systems and a comprehensive training programme for food handlers.
The adoption of a flexible system based on Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment
has resulted in improved standards in our stores.
At Dunnes Stores our Food Technologists inspect our suppliers premises to
ensure compliance with our Quality standard and to ensure the products are being
handled in a safe manner.
At present we are implementing our Food Safety system in to all stores. This
system is based on HACCP. The hazard analysis will identify the specific
controls required at each step in the operation. The key to food safety is to
ensure the competency of staff at each stage of the chain and documented
systems, which can be audited by our Managers to demonstrate that all control
measures are implemented.
Several Environmental Health graduates are employed as Food Safety Managers
for stores. They assist with the implementation of the Food Safety system, audit
stores to the required standard and carry out regular Food Hygiene training in
our stores.
It is the objective of Dunnes Stores to supply safe, quality food to our
customers in a clean and pleasant shopping environment. To achieve this
objective, Dunnes Stores apply rigorous standards of hygiene, to ensure:-
- Our stores are of the highest standard of visual cleanliness and provide a
pleasant shopping environment for our customers;
- There is a pleasant working environment for Dunnes Stores personnel;
- We sell good quality , safe food;
- We minimise wastage due to poor handling;
- We prevent contamination of food and cross contamination. ( Raw and cooked
separation)
- We create good working conditions with a "Clean as you go"
policy in operation throughout the store;
- We develop a good hygiene awareness and understand the principles of Food
Safety;
The success of Good Hygiene Management depends on teamwork in our stores and
ensuring that everybody takes responsibility for the hygiene and good practices
in their place of work. To ensure high standards of Food safety in our stores we
have implemented a Food Safety Control system based on Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Point (HACCP) system.
There were a number of challenges addressed when implementing such a Food
Safety System. The retail business has changed over the past number of years
with increased opening hours and seven-day trading. The consistency of standards
in the stores is essential and thus there must be a structured approach to both
the cleaning operations and the food safety controls.
1. Documentation of all hygiene standards:
The first stage was to ensure that there was a good basic standard of hygiene
in all the stores. There must be clear guidelines given to all employees and
enforced as Company policy. It is important, that the management should observe
these regulations also, for example Personal Hygiene regulations. Should they
fail to do so the staff will be demotivated.
The codes of practice were compiled in great detail based on joint visits
with Environmental Heath Officers, customer complaints, the Retail guidelines
from NSAI and advice given by Independent Food Safety Consultants. The codes
were documented in the Dunnes Stores "Food Safety Manual and were detailed
per department in the store. These were the Good Hygiene Practices required in
every department in the store and were written in simple terms with visual aids
to ensure easy reading.
2. Documentation of the Food Safety System
Effective implementation of HACCP requires a preliminary risk assessment and
to define the food safety objectives. These objectives allow to prioritize
risks, to apportionate resources, to identify and validate CCPs and their
critical limits and to establish the systems.
Each system was compiled in such a way that it was user-friendly and easily
understood particularly by junior members of staff or Management. The documented
systems Save all the necessary information to understand how each critical food
safety point was controlled. i.e. The temperature control system states:- The
date, time, name of checker, name of product in the area , temperature of the
chill, recheck when poor temperatures and details of any action taken. The
monitoring procedure was documented at the bottom of the sheet to ensure the
checker was aware of the procedure at all times. Each checker completed the
specific training in how to complete the checks correctly as part of the HACCP
training programme.
The in-store systems that were compiled were as follows: -
- Temperature monitoring - Chilled & frozen units
- Hot food production and display controls
- Stock rotation
- Cleaning Schedules
- Mince control system
The systems were compiled by liaising closely with the Environmental Health
Officers to ensure compliance with the current and pending Food Hygiene
legislation.
3. Link with Purchasing / Technical
departments
The Food Safety Controls prior to arriving at the stores are controlled by
the purchasing and the Technical departments. Supplier audits are completed by
the Technical team to ensure compliance with the Dunnes Stores Quality standard.
The deliveries of food to the stores are spot-checked to a specific quality
and hygiene standard. The details referring to non-conforming deliveries are
communicated to Head Office to enable the Technical / Purchasing team to follow
up the problems with the supplier. This communication link and follow up action
is vital to ensure there are consistent standards of product being delivered to
our stores to the required specification.
The in-store traceability system was set up in the fresh food departments to
ensure all opened foods were traceable to the supplier at every stage of the
process. Documented systems were established to identify the internal shelf life
of all fresh produce and was traceable to the time of production in the factory.
4.Good Hygiene Practices
Before a HACCP/Food Safety system could be introduced there must be a sound
hygiene base. Good practices must be implemented with a clean as you go policy
in every department. The highest standards of hygiene were enforced by
Management at every level. Clear, colourful hygiene signage was developed with
relevant graphics to highlight the instructions. These were placed in
appropriate locations to remind staff of the good hygiene practices, which
should be in operation in Dunnes Stores.
5. Personalized systems per store
The Food Safety and Cleaning Schedules were personalized per store. Plans
were drawn of each department to be used for temperature monitoring and cleaning
schedules. The departmental cleaning programmes were planned and agreed in
advance thus the frequency of cleaning was standardized per department in every
store in the group.
Cleaning schedules in the delicatessen areas were compiled by listing every
piece of equipment in the area. The completed cleaning schedules were
spot-checked by Management by doing a cross-comparison between the record and
the relevant equipment, which was cleaned. This was to ensure the completed
schedules reflected the actual cleaning standards.
6. Commercial involvement
Hygiene is an important part of the role of the Store Manager through the
active support from Commercial Managers at a Senior level. The roles and
responsibilities at each level within the Commercial Management structure were
defined concisely to ensure the management of hygiene was an integral part of
the day to day management routine.
HACCP checklists were compiled for department Managers, Store Managers and
Area Managers to ensure that there was a consistency of standards of hygiene in
the stores.
7. Systems implementation
Food Safety Managers were recruited to provide specialized training in the
stores. These were mainly Environmental Health Graduates who would have a sound
knowledge of the legislative requirements. The role of the Food Safety Manager
was to ensure all systems were implemented properly, provide the necessary
training to Managers and Staff and to audit the stores thereafter. Generally the
Food Safety Managers would raise the awareness of Food Safety and Hygiene in the
stores.
8. Training
The specific information from the Food Safety Manual became part of the
overall training for each employee. The relevant hygiene / food safety details
were issued as a Quality Standard. This training would provide the detailed
codes of practice relevant to each department. An in-house certified induction
hygiene course is provided to food handlers.
All Management required initial basic hygiene training, an introduction to
HACCP workshop and more detailed Food Safety training. The training was provided
both in-house and by external training providers, Formal HACCP training
workshops for Management were a forum to discuss the purpose of the Food Safety
system and Managers could actually devise HACCP systems for various products.
The course also highlighted each person's role and responsibilities to ensure
that the HACCP system worked effectively.
9. Measuring hygiene standards
-Verification process
Measurement of hygiene standards was essential to ensure consistency in
stores throughout the country. The Managers were always advised on the
improvement or drop in standards in the store but a precise score indicated the
actual standard compared to other stores. Thus a structured method of measuring
the food safety system and hygiene standards was set up. This proved an
extremely successful approach by placing a competitive aspect to the hygiene
standards in the different stores.
The Food Safety system and hygiene standards were measured at different
levels i.e. In-store audits, Area Manager audits, Head Office audits and audits
by Independent Food Safety Consultants. All audits reports were working
documents indicating the problems found during the inspection but also the Store
Manager documented all relevant action taken in the store to prevent a
repetition of the problem.
This verification process is performed after the Food Safety system is
implemented to check whether the system is working. This is carried out both
internally and externally and the system is updated where necessary. The audit
process is a systematic and independent examination to determine whether our
food safety system is correctly established, effectively implemented and
suitable to achieve our objectives.
The Dunnes Stores National Hygiene Championship
The introduction of a National Hygiene Competition throughout Ireland has
been a very successful method of motivating both staff and Management to raise
standards of hygiene in all stores. Independent Food Safety Consultants complete
rigorous detailed checks on the whole HACCP system twice yearly. This is an
extremely effective method of ensuring the highest standards in the stores and
that all systems are working,
10. Review of the Food Safety System
Each year all systems are reviewed to ensure the control system is working as
effectively as possible. All common problems highlighted through the audits were
addressed and capital invested where necessary. The review of the system
highlighted policies, roles, systems or training information that need to be
amended. The Food Safety manual and training information is updated each year.
Joint visits with Environmental Health Officers will incorporate changing public
health concerns into the system and all points are added to the revised version
of the Food Safety Manual. A rigorous risk assessment should provide the basis
for monitoring problems and changes in food safety risks and to identify
priorities for action.
The Dunnes Stores Food Safety system is an action -orientated system, which
controls hazards associated with the food products, the in-store processes,
personnel, equipment and environmental factors. This is a proactive approach to
Food Safety by focusing control at points in the operation, which are critical
to Food Safety. Dunnes Stores are very committed to Food Safety and Hygiene in
our stores. The involvement of Managers at every level is vital to ensure this
Food Safety system works effectively and that it will be maintained particularly
during peak trading
periods.
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