The University of Winchester recently completed the specialist “Food Allergy Aware” workshop in preparation for the forthcoming new EU Food Information for Consumers (FIC) Regulations, coming into effect on 13 December 2014.
The regulations, which are billed as “The biggest change in food safety legislation since 2005”, will affect all sectors of the food service industry as they will be required to provide detailed allergen information on all non-prepacked foods that they produce and sell either in-house or supplied packaged.
The workshop gave an all-round view of the employers and the employees obligations under the regulations. Group work also enabled the team to begin developing the steps needed to ensure compliance within their own outlets.
The University already provides ample choice to the ‘free-from’ customer but Catering Manager, Dave Morton, wants to go to the next level to provide a safe choice for every customer and extend their range of offerings available.
Precise on both the origins and the content of food served
Dave stated; “The university is a values driven institution and one of those six values is – individuals matter – the wellbeing of individuals is important, as are their opinions and views. As a department we take the values very seriously and believe that all our customers have a right to good quality food which is both healthy and sustainable. To ensure we maintain this to all our customers we need to be able to demonstrate we are precise on both the origins and the content of the food that we serve.
“We already engage with our customers to offer a variety of dishes, not just to those with specific dietary needs but as part of our mainstream menu offer. The training required to comply with future legislation is part of the natural process of development and we are pleased to be working with Caroline Benjamin and her team at FATC.
“We felt that everyone benefitted from recent training session as the information was clear and easy to understand. Everyone has put forward suggestions on how to improve what we already do on allergy awareness, which is really encouraging.”
FATC workshops across the south are detailed here:
Planning for Change – Food Allergen Law Workshop – Worthing 16 June 14
Planning for Change – Food Allergen Law Workshop – Southampton 22 July 14
Planning for Change – Food Allergen Law Workshop – Salisbury 29 July 14
Planning for Change – Food Allergen Law Workshop – Winchester 13 August 14
Individuals can register for these online at www.fatc.co.uk/events. Tailored in-house training and workshops are also available. Please contact FATC for more information, and for a free 15 minute consultation.
Email: consultancy@fatc.co.uk
@Foodallergyawar
Mobile 07732637292
About Food Allergy Training Consultancy
Caroline Benjamin (50) is a food intolerance sufferer from Eastleigh in Hampshire. Over the last 13 years, her experiences of eating out have resulted in minimal choice, high costs and a lack of knowledge on the consequences of serving food containing allergens. This combined with the major changes to food laws, has seen Caroline establish herself as a ‘one-stop-shop’ on all things food allergy related.
As a result she has created the Food Allergy Training Consultancy to help food businesses and venues improve their product offering and knowledge, and prepare for major changes to EU food labelling legislation.