Food Standards Agency provides funding for Olympics food safety

The Food Standards Agency has provided funding for a food safety coaching programme to help raise standards in small food businesses in time for the 2012 Olympics this summer.

The contract was awarded in open tender to NSF-CMi, a food assurance business, who will work with selected local authorities around Olympic venues to coach up to 2,000 small catering businesses, where there will be a focus on coaching basic food hygiene standards, such as handwashing practices.

Over 10 million spectators are expected at the Olympics and it is estimated that 14 million meals will be served across the 40 Olympic venues alone. However that is only part of the picture as the UK is already anticipating over 30 million tourists overall this year.

NSF-CMi Ltd has trained food handlers and food business operators in the UK hotel, catering and hospitality sectors for more than 26 years.

The education team, which includes experienced trainers and occupational psychologists, will be developing tailor-made food safety videos and animated materials as well as face-to-face training, both classroom based coaching and training sessions at the participants' premises.

David Edwards, director of NSF-CMi, who is heading up the design and development of the programme said, "Our focus has always been to deliver high quality coaching and training, using our technical expertise and industry insight to develop effective and innovative content and materials.
"We will be looking at how we can use these new materials in innovative ways after the Olympics to provide ongoing support to local authorities in their bid to drive up food hygiene standards in their areas."