Food Safety, Allergens and Nutrition

1. Purpose

A young person who is hungry, dysregulated and running on energy drinks cannot learn. Food at Care Cove is part of regulation, engagement, health and the curriculum at the same time. This policy makes sure that every learner gets breakfast and a hot meal every day they attend, free and without stigma; that all food is safe, including for learners with allergies; that our food meets the School Food Standards, which we have adopted voluntarily; and that we never harm a learner's relationship with food.

2. Scope

This policy covers all food and drink provided, prepared or eaten during Care Cove Alternative Provision sessions: breakfast, the daily hot lunch supplied by Food Fusion, cooking lessons, food on trips and food brought in for events. It applies to every learner, whoever commissions the place, and to all staff, agency staff and volunteers. Where the kitchen at 37 Townhead Street is also used by Care Cove Short Breaks or other building users, the same food safety management system applies, and the kitchen is checked and cleaned before AP use each day.

3. Law and guidance

• Food Safety Act 1990: food must be safe and of the nature and quality expected.

• Retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004 and the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013: food hygiene, a food safety management system based on HACCP principles, temperature control (including hot holding at 63°C or above) and food hygiene training.

• Food Information Regulations 2014 and allergen rules: allergen information for all food we provide; full labelling of prepacked food, including food prepacked by another business; prepacked for direct sale labelling (Natasha's Law) for anything we pack on site before it is chosen.

• Food business registration: a food business must register with its local authority at least 28 days before it starts operating.

• Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014: not legally binding on us, because we are not a maintained school or pupil referral unit, but adopted voluntarily in full. We will adopt the updated School Food Standards when the Department for Education brings revised regulations into force.

• NHS Eatwell Guide.

• Safer Food Better Business (Food Standards Agency) as our food safety management system.

4. Roles and responsibilities

• The Director is responsible for Care Cove as a food business: registration with Sheffield City Council Environmental Health, the food safety management system, the written agreement with Food Fusion, and supplier checks.

• The Head of AP oversees food on a daily basis: staffing each service with trained food handlers, signing off the three-week menu against the School Food Standards each half term, reviewing menus with learners, and the safety of cooking lessons.

• The service lead is the Level 2 trained member of staff named on the daily rota to lead breakfast or lunch. They complete the opening and closing checks, receive and check the delivery, check allergens against the register and record everything in the Safer Food Better Business diary.

• The Clinical Advisor advises on medical diets, anaphylaxis and suspected eating disorders.

• The Administrator keeps allergens and dietary needs up to date on Connect and publishes menus to parents.

• Everyone who handles food follows this policy, holds Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene and reports illness.

• Food Fusion supplies safe, correctly labelled meals that meet the standards in our written agreement.

5. Registration and food safety management

5.1 Registration

The kitchen at 37 Townhead Street must be registered with Sheffield City Council Environmental Health as a food business before any food activity starts, covering breakfast, receiving, holding and serving Food Fusion meals, and cooking lessons. The Director keeps the registration confirmation, the latest inspection report and food hygiene rating, and notifies Environmental Health of any significant change in the food activity. We co-operate fully with every inspection and share the outcome with the commissioning local authority's contract manager.

5.2 Safer Food Better Business and HACCP

We use the Food Standards Agency's Safer Food Better Business pack, which applies HACCP principles: identify what could go wrong, put controls in place, check them and keep records. Our pack covers:

• receiving deliveries and checking temperatures;

• chilled storage at 8°C or below (we aim for 5°C or below);

• hot holding at 63°C or above, and reheating;

• preventing cross-contamination, including allergen control;

• cleaning, personal hygiene and pest control;

• opening and closing checks, recorded every operating day in the diary;

• a four-weekly review signed by the Director.

Records are kept in the kitchen and available to Environmental Health and the commissioning local authority. Fridge and probe thermometers are checked for accuracy each month.

6. Food Fusion: the daily hot lunch

6.1 Supplier checks

If Food Fusion's hygiene rating falls below 4, the Director suspends deliveries, uses the contingency in section 6.4 and decides within 5 working days whether to continue the arrangement.

6.2 The written agreement

The agreement covers menus to the School Food Standards; allergen information and written notice of any recipe or ingredient change before it is delivered; labelling; the delivery window and whether meals arrive hot or chilled; temperatures; special diets; quantities; that meals arrive in containers we can plate from, without calorie labels for learners to see; notice of any inspection result or enforcement action; our right to visit the kitchen; how complaints and incidents are handled; insurance; confidentiality and data protection; and ethical sourcing under our Modern Slavery and Ethical Sourcing policy.

Food Fusion receives only the dietary and allergen information it needs to make each meal safe, as set out in Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing. Special diet meals are labelled with the diet and only the minimum needed to match each meal to the right learner, never with wider health details.

6.3 Receiving, holding and reheating

1. The service lead checks the delivery on arrival: time, packaging intact, labels or allergen sheet matching the day's menu, and any named special diet meals present.

2. Probe the food. Hot food must be at 63°C or above. Chilled food must be at 8°C or below.

3. Record the time and temperatures in the diary.

4. Reject anything that fails a check, phone Food Fusion straight away, and use the contingency if needed.

5. Hot food is kept at 63°C or above until served, with temperatures checked at the start and end of service. If hot food falls below 63°C after delivery, it is served within 2 hours of falling below that temperature or thrown away. It is never reheated to be hot held again.

6. Chilled meals are kept at 8°C or below and reheated until steaming hot all the way through (a probe reading of at least 75°C in the centre), then served straight away. Food is reheated only once.

7. Food left over after it has been hot held is thrown away. It is never chilled for later or sent home.

6.4 If a delivery fails

If the delivery has not arrived 30 minutes before lunch, the service lead phones Food Fusion. If a safe meal cannot arrive in time for lunch, the service lead cooks a hot meal from the contingency menu, using store cupboard and frozen stock kept in our kitchen for this purpose. The contingency menu meets the School Food Standards as closely as possible, is covered by the allergen matrix and includes options for every recorded diet. Every learner still gets a hot meal. The service lead tells the Head of AP, who records the failure. Two failures in a half term lead to a supplier review by the Director.

7. Breakfast and cooking lessons in our kitchen

• Breakfast is prepared on site and available from 08:45 every day, free and without question. Examples include porridge, wholemeal toast, low-sugar cereal, eggs, beans, fruit, yoghurt and milk. Breakfast meets the same standards as lunch.

• Cooking lessons take place in our kitchen, led by a member of staff with Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene, under a written risk assessment covering knives, heat, hygiene and allergens.

• Before each cooking lesson, the lead checks every ingredient against the allergens of every learner in the group and adapts the recipe so that every learner can take part safely.

• Learners wash their hands, tie hair back and wear aprons. They are taught knife skills, safe use of heat, cleaning and safe storage, and can work towards Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene.

• Food cooked by learners to take home is cooled, covered and labelled with the learner's name, the date, the allergens it contains and "keep refrigerated" where needed.

• If we ever pack food on site before it is chosen (for example packed lunches for a trip), each item is labelled with the name of the food and a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised, under the prepacked for direct sale rules.

8. Food hygiene training and personal hygiene

• Everyone who handles food, including staff and volunteers, holds Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene before handling food unsupervised, refreshed every 3 years. Training is recorded on the Connect training matrix.

• Food handlers wash their hands before handling food and after breaks, toilets, raw food and waste; wear clean clothing and aprons; tie hair back; and cover cuts with a blue waterproof dressing.

• A food handler with diarrhoea or vomiting must not handle food until 48 hours after symptoms stop. Infected cuts or skin conditions and other infectious illnesses must be reported to the Head of AP before handling food. The same applies to learners in cooking lessons.

9. Allergen management

9.1 Recording

• Every learner's allergies and intolerances are recorded on their Connect learner record at admission, confirmed with parents in writing, and shown on the daily register.

• Learners at risk of anaphylaxis have an individual healthcare plan (see Supporting Medical Needs and Administering Medicines).

• The 14 allergens that must be declared are listed in Appendix A.

9.2 The allergen matrix

We keep an allergen matrix for every dish we serve: each Food Fusion dish, every breakfast item, the contingency menu and every cooking lesson recipe. It is updated the same day any recipe, product or supplier changes, and a copy is kept at the service point. Allergen information is available to learners, parents and staff on request.

9.3 Checking at service

1. Before service, the service lead checks the register for allergies and special diets present that day.

2. Learners with an allergy are served first, using clean utensils, with their meal checked against the matrix or label.

3. Staff ask the learner to confirm before eating.

4. If in doubt, do not serve. Staff never guess, and never rely on removing an ingredient from a finished dish.

5. A learner with an allergy is never pressured to try a food.

9.4 If a reaction happens

Follow the learner's plan and the anaphylaxis steps in Supporting Medical Needs and Administering Medicines: give the adrenaline auto-injector, call 999, and stay with the learner. Learners' auto-injectors are within reach at Family Table. Record the incident on Connect and review the cause with Food Fusion where relevant.

10. Nutrition standards

We meet the School Food Standards in full, together with the Eatwell Guide, across the whole day, including breakfast:

The Head of AP signs off the three-week menu each half term against a School Food Standards checklist before it is shared.

11. Free meals, Family Table and menus

• Breakfast and a hot lunch are free for every learner on every attended day. There are no tokens, lists or payments, and everyone receives food in the same way, so no learner is identifiable as receiving free food.

• Lunch is Family Table, from 12:30 to 13:00. Staff eat the same meal with learners. There are table jobs, a conversation question, and everyone clears their own place.

• Meals are plated rather than served in individual tubs, so that no labels are on the table.

• Nobody is made to eat, and staff do not comment on what or how much a learner eats unless a health plan requires it. Food is never used as a reward or a punishment, and is never withheld.

• The three-week menu is shared with parents through the Family portal on Connect and reviewed with learners each half term. Learners' feedback is passed to Food Fusion.

12. Special diets

Cultural, religious, vegetarian, vegan and medical diets are catered for as standard. Each learner's needs are recorded on Connect and shown on the register, and the Director agrees with Food Fusion how each is met, including written confirmation for religious requirements such as halal. Medical diets (for example coeliac disease or diabetes) are agreed with the Clinical Advisor and the family. Learners who are fasting for religious reasons are offered a quiet space at lunchtime, with arrangements agreed with the family.

13. Drinks and energy drinks

• Free, fresh drinking water is available at all times, with jugs at Family Table and learners encouraged to keep a water bottle.

• No energy drinks are allowed on site, for anyone. Staff do not bring them in.

• If a learner arrives with an energy drink, staff ask them to hand it in. It is held unopened at reception and returned when they leave, as set out in Searching, Screening and Confiscation. It is never taken by force or poured away. A repeated pattern is discussed by the key mentor with the learner and family, and the topic is taught in the Fuel theme.

14. Safeguards against disordered eating

• Staff never discuss weight, calories, dieting, restriction or "good" and "bad" foods with learners.

• No calorie labels appear at the table. Meals are plated rather than served in labelled tubs where the labels show calories.

• Nobody is weighed or measured.

• Staff notice and record possible signs, such as skipping meals, rigid food rules, hiding food, excessive exercise or leaving to vomit after eating, and tell the key mentor and the DSL the same day.

• Where an eating disorder is known or suspected, the Clinical Advisor advises before any dietary approach is agreed, working with the family, the health service and the learner's counsellor.

15. Food waste and water

• The service lead notes how much food is left over at each lunch. The Head of AP reviews this with Food Fusion each week to adjust quantities and dishes.

• Packaging is recycled wherever possible.

• Unopened chilled food is kept for the next day only if it has stayed at 8°C or below and is within its use-by date. Surplus food is donated only when it is safe, in date and correctly labelled.

• Learners learn about food waste and budgeting in the Fuel theme and help plan menus that reduce it.

16. Monitoring and review

• Daily: opening and closing checks, delivery and temperature records, allergen checks at service.

• Weekly: Head of AP reviews the diary, waste and any delivery problems.

• Four-weekly: Director's Safer Food Better Business review.

• Monthly: Food Fusion's hygiene rating checked.

• Half-termly: menu review with learners and sign-off against the School Food Standards.

• After any allergic reaction, food complaint or Environmental Health visit: review within 5 working days, reported to the SWMC.

• This policy is ratified by the SWMC and reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident, a change in law or guidance (including revised School Food Standards), or a contract change. It is available to the commissioning local authority at any time.

17. Related policies

• 24 Supporting Medical Needs and Administering Medicines
• 15 Health and Safety, including Fire and First Aid
• 13 Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment
• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 18 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• 23 Modern Slavery and Ethical Sourcing
• 26 Off-site Learning and Educational Visits
• 09 Searching, Screening and Confiscation
• 20 Business Continuity and Emergency Closure
• 17 Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing

Appendix A: The 14 allergens

Appendix B: Delivery check record

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.