The New Starter with a Sore Throat
A restaurant has hired a new kitchen assistant, who starts on a busy Saturday. During induction, she mentions she has had a sore throat and a slight temperature for two days but says she feels well enough to work. She is due to handle ready-to-eat sandwiches and salads. The head chef is short-staffed and under pressure to open. The assistant has not yet been given food hygiene training and has not signed a health questionnaire. The restaurant's food safety management system requires staff to report certain symptoms and requires exclusion for specific illnesses.
1. Advise the head chef on whether the assistant should be allowed to handle ready-to-eat food, giving your reasoning.
Read the worked answer
A sore throat with a temperature is a symptom that should be reported and assessed. It is not automatically a reason for exclusion, but it is a reason to keep the person away from ready-to-eat food until the cause is clearer. The assistant should not handle sandwiches and salads while symptomatic. She could be redeployed to non-food-contact tasks such as washing up or cleaning, provided she follows hand hygiene and does not cough or sneeze near food. The head chef should not let staffing pressure override this. The assistant should be sent home if symptoms worsen, and should be told to report vomiting, diarrhoea, or infected cuts.
2. Identify the induction failures in this scenario and explain why each matters.
Read the worked answer
First, the assistant has not been trained in food hygiene before starting food handling - training should precede or at least accompany food handling, and must be documented. Second, she has not completed a health questionnaire, so the business has no baseline record of her health status. Third, she has not been told how to report symptoms, which is a core part of the food safety management system. Each failure weakens the business's ability to demonstrate due diligence and increases the risk of contamination. The head chef should pause food handling duties, complete the questionnaire, deliver basic training on hand hygiene and reporting, and record all of it.
3. What should the head chef record about this situation, and why?
Read the worked answer
Record the symptoms reported, the date and time, the action taken (redeployment or exclusion), the advice given, and the date of return to food handling. This matters for three reasons: it demonstrates due diligence if there is an incident; it gives a clear trail if a guest becomes ill; and it supports consistent management of the assistant's health. The record should be kept with the business's food safety records and reviewed when the assistant returns.