Managing allergens in the care home
By Mark Sanders, Director at Zupa Caternet (www.caternet.co.uk)
Since the changes to EU regulations for allergens and food labelling came into force back in December 2014, coping with the burden of daily allergen management continues to be a battle for many in the catering and foodservice industry. The care home environment is of course no different, stories relating to severe allergy cases affecting the elderly still make headlines, putting increased pressure on the sector to ensure that care home caterers and kitchen staff are on top of allergens management.
Lack of allergens awareness continues to be a problem and for catering managers a primary concern is staff giving out incorrect allergens information, which could have serious consequences. It’s no secret that it is a big job to manage this day to day (on top of the usual role of cooking fresh and healthy meals for residents).
The fact is care home catering teams, their suppliers and manufacturers, are still battling with the legal requirements for allergens. Ensuring people get the correct allergens information is vital and can be a matter of life and death in some cases, so it’s understandable that this is a concern for many operating in the care home sector. Equally, keeping on top of that advice daily can be a huge drain on resource and this is where the real ongoing worries lie for catering teams.
Having the right processes and plans in place in the first instance is a good starting point. Catering functions within care homes need to focus on building a bank of recipes on their systems and an allergen directory that contains all of the required information easily to hand for anyone who wishes to know. Creating peace of mind through initial compliance will ensure that the creation of healthy, balanced and nutritious meals is allowed to thrive in the kitchen but in a sensible and controlled way that is safe for everyone.
Benefiting from the intervention of fit for purpose technology will also alleviate the detail involved in managing allergens legislation (and of course, the time it takes on a daily basis). Technology has thankfully progressed to a point where it is now entirely possible for care homes to automate this process and manage the task of allergens on a daily basis without having a direct impact on the catering team in terms of the level of the time and resource needed to manage it efficiently and of course, keep on top of any future changes.
About Zupa Caternet (www.caternet.co.uk)
Zupa Caternet is a one-stop shop web portal that delivers cutting edge eProcurement technology to the pub & bar, restaurant, food & beverage and hospitality sectors. With an extensive range of diverse products and services, Zupa Caternet helps businesses to save time and money by modernising purchasing, reporting and financial systems as well as stock management and catering related solutions such as recipes, allergens and nutritional analysis. Its purpose built, flexible technology fully integrates Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and finance management systems across any organisation that buys products and services. Zupa Caternet is part of the Zupa Group and is a Microsoft Silver Development Partner.