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Aston
University joins Birmingham City Council to give food for thought
Aston
University has won a contract with Birmingham City Council to train
20 caterers following the arrival of new EU legislation on 1st
January 2006. The training will help support Asian caterers
from
the local community who may be affected by a language barrier in
understanding how to implement the new legislation.
The first
session was held at Aston University on Tuesday 31st January from
10am to 1pm.
Although the
new legislation has been put in place, there has been no additional
help from the Government for small businesses or businesses whose
employees speak little English. The Safer Food Better Business scheme
will therefore provide these businesses with further guidance on the
new legislation.
The EU has
stated that all food business operators across Europe must establish,
implement and maintain a food safety management system. The strict
guidelines have been enforced as a result of there being no set
qualifications required in order to set up restaurants or takeaways.
A lack of training and safety awareness of some catering businesses
has consequently led catering premises to be the most common location
for food poisoning, followed by the domestic home.
Dr Anthony
Hilton, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology in the School of Life &
Health Sciences at Aston, will be training the group in the new,
recommended food safety system, Safer Food Better Business. The
microbiology and food safety expert was nominated by Birmingham City
Council to undergo training at the Foods Standards Agency in order to
train the Council's own Environmental Health Officers and Caterers.
'Aston
University has had a long standing partnership in food safety with
Birmingham City Council and is very much looking forward to working
with them to implement Safer Food Better Business across the region,'
said Dr Hilton.
The scheme
will consist of a three hour training session at the University
followed by two visits to the caterer's individual premises.
The first
visit will help them implement the scheme and the second will provide
support in ensuring it is adhered to.
Many of the
caterers undergoing training originate from a variety of Asian
countries, with most speaking Mirpuri. This is the language spoken by
a lot of the caterers in the Sparkhill and Sparkbrook area. Any
language barrier is overcome by Language Consultant Mohammed Ashraf.
Originating
from the Mirpuri region of Pakistan, Mr Ashraf is able to speak
Mirpuri, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. His role in the scheme involves
being present in the training sessions to translate when necessary
and perform many of the follow up visits to the businesses. Mohammed,
who is a graduate of Aston University, has had 18 years of catering
experience and has had his own restaurant, Haweli on the Hagley Road
in Birmingham for 12 years.
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