Running the centre
Food handler
A food handler is anyone whose job involves touching food while preparing, serving, storing or delivering it. In a residence dining hall that means the kitchen and serving staff, and whoever runs the kitchen has to make sure they are trained in food hygiene.
Also known asfood handlers · food handler's card · food hygiene course · kitchen staff
What the rules say today
For a decade it was governed in Spain by Royal Decree 202/2000, which required training bodies and their programmes to be authorised by the authorities. Royal Decree 109/2010 repealed it and, according to its preamble, responsibility passed to the business: it is the operator who has to show, during official inspections, that its food handlers are properly trained. The basis is Chapter XII of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 852/2004: supervision and instruction or training in hygiene suited to each person's job, specific training for whoever runs HACCP, and compliance with any national training rules for each sector.
Chapter VIII of the same Annex adds personal hygiene: cleanliness and suitable clothing, and that anyone suffering from an illness that can be passed on through food, or with, for example, infected wounds or diarrhoea, must not handle food and must tell the business. In a residence this matters most for special diet dishes and for allergens, where a slip while preparing or serving affects one specific person.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that you need a food handler's card issued or endorsed by the authorities. Since Royal Decree 202/2000 was repealed, AESAN, Spain's food safety agency, explains that training bodies need no approval or authorisation, and may not present their courses as endorsed by the Ministry or by the agency. A certificate helps to show the training, but what is checked is that each person knows what their job requires.
Sources
Related terms
- Special dietA special diet is the adapted menu a canteen serves to someone who cannot or does not want to eat the standard one: because of an allergy or intolerance, coeliac disease, religious reasons, being vegetarian or vegan or medical advice. In a residence it needs a record for each person and a kitchen that keeps it in view.
- HACCPHACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) is the method a kitchen uses to identify what could make food unsafe, decide where to control it and keep a record showing that it does. In the EU, Regulation 852/2004 requires it of every food business beyond primary production.