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Data revealed by Safe to Trade, the industry-wide standard devoted to driving food safety and hygiene standards, has highlighted date coding as the highest driver of non-conformances across the hospitality sector.
In addition to playing a pivotal role in food waste, date coding supports food quality and safety, informing food operators and customers about the durability of the foodstuff. In many cases in the hospitality industry, date coding denotes the status of ingredients or products that are ‘work in progress’, or prepared for open display, allowing food business operators to manage the material within its overall shelf lifeand to manage stock rotation.
Between January 2023 and November 2024, 948 audits were conducted impartially by competent Environmental Health Practitioners against the Safe to Trade standard, identifying a significant 6848 non-conformances across 48 areas relating to food safety. Delving deeper into the data collected in line with the strict governance procedures outlined in the Safe to Trade protocol, the reason for the greatest number of non-conformances was revealed as being ‘no date label on product’ with this being particularly focussed on ‘foods opened and decanted from original packaging’.
Alec Kyriakides, Independent Food Safety Consultant and Chair of the Safe to Trade Technical Standards Committee comments: “The data derived from the Safe to Trade audits highlights the value of using non-conformances as a springboard to identify root causes. In turn, this will drive continuous improvement in the food safety management system enabling the development of processes and procedures to deliver more consistent compliance.
“In the context of this non-conformance, the root cause may be a knowledge gap, overly complex in-house date coding policies or wilful disregard. These can be readily rectified by re-training and checking understanding, regularly reviewing and simplifying policies and procedures with staff and developing a positive food safety culture in the organisation.
“Another key finding was that low-risk foods (breakfast cereals, crisps, dry spices and condiments) on open display were driving the non-conformance ‘product beyond in-house expiry date’. As the expiry date on these foods relates to quality rather than safety, a food safety management system unduly limiting the shelf life of low-risk foods may itself be driving behaviours leading to nonconformance as staff may be ill-inclined to dispose of foods that otherwise appear of acceptable quality. And, of course, this also has a big impact on food waste. A review of the food safety management system and associated policy for the shelf life of low-risk foods may, in this case, allow either increased shelf life to be allocated or greater freedom for local decision-making regarding rotation or disposal of such products to be granted, both of which also deliver reduced non-conformance – a win-win for the business through the analysis of data.
“To reduce date labelling non-conformances and cut food waste, at Safe to Trade we advise food businesses to focus on food opened and decanted from its original packaging. Operators should review their food safety management system and use root cause analysis to identify underlying issues.”
To download the full article ‘Safe to Trade Data Insights – Date Coding’ , visit:https://try.safetotrade.org.uk/data-insights/
