According to a recent survey from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in Wales, food safety training has been negatively affected by the present economic climate.

Apparently, basic safety training for food handlers which covers important rules for handling raw and cooked meat and reminders for washing hands and keeping surfaces clean is being cut. If this trend is true, it can only be bad news for public health.

This comes after the 2005 report into the E.coli O157 outbreak in South Wales by Professor Pennington, who stated that if there are holes in safety systems, tragedies will happen again.

It’s extremely vital that businesses handling food realise that basic safety training is a top priority as they are not only accountable to the public, but can also face prison sentences, reputational damage or be closed down as a result of negligence. If anything, food businesses should be spending more on training staff, not cutting back.

It appears that another celebrity has been cursed with food poisoning. Poor Alexa Chung, explains in her column for The Independent:

“Lying in a tepid bath, pondering just how bad it would be to vomit in it, or alternatively trying to muster the wherewithal to make it to the loo, was not how I envisaged my weekend panning out. It appears I had food poisoning.”

We really sympathise for Alexa, as we know how upsetting and debilitating food poisoning can be. The only saving grace in this situation is that the TV presenter is young, fit and healthy. This illness can be much more severe, and potentially live threatening, for children, the elderly and people taking slow release medication.

Thankfully, with lots of rest and plenty of fluids, Alexa was feeling back to her glamorous self in no time.

In an attempt to get more customers booking holidays, it appears that travel firms are offering a piece of the sun for as little as £5 a night.

While we understand everyone loves a bargain, and at £5 a night for a holiday in Turkey or Greece it is just that, it is essential that holiday-makers don’t get blinkered and forget about their health and safety needs just because of the cheap price.

A survey last year from Halifax Holiday Insurance revealed that British holidaymakers only spend seven hours away from the hotel during their annual holiday. This highlights how important it is that we start to view the health and safety standards of the accommodation as a more integral part of the holiday booking process.

So remember, before you whip out your credit card to snap up one of these deals do your research and check with the tour operator to see if that particular hotel has experienced any recent health and safety issues.

Check Safety First HQ has another celebrity in its midst, Mr Mark Harrington.

This week, Mark took part in a regional radio tour giving holiday health and safety advice to the citizens of Newcastle and Hampshire. For those who missed Mark’s interviews, or are from different areas of the country, you can catch his appearances again on iPlayer:

Click here to hear Mark in Newcastle.  01:44:00

Click here to catch Mark in Hampshire.  00:05:25

Our auditors at Check Safety First have been going into hotels and restaurants for over ten years, making sure that they are achieving a high standard of health and safety and not potentially putting their guests at risk. Over this time we have heard many excuses and seen many things, but hand on our heart, we have never come across a pet being kept in a kitchen.

That’s exactly what a Yarmouth health inspector found when she carried out a routine check on a local hotel. According of Kate Watt’s, one of the inspectors:

“As I walked into the kitchen I saw people smoking, I also noticed some kind of droppings on the kitchen floor. Then out popped a white rabbit.”

Apparently, the animal was kept in an upturned washing basket which was left under some shelving. The 18-room hotel was, obviously, immediately shut down due to the public safety risk it posed.

We suspect that the RSPCA are as concerned and disgusted as we are.

For those who were up bright any early today, you may have seen Check Safety First’s very own Jason Burnett on BBC Breakfast offering advice on how to avoid food poisoning this Christmas.

A big round of applause to Jason, who is a natural on TV.

BBC1 – December 25th 2008

Unless you have been in hibernation trying to avoid the run up to Christmas, you would have heard lots in the news about the surge in the cases of norovirus otherwise known as “the winter vomiting bug”, exacerbated by the sharp rise in flu infections. Groups are estimating that 100 hospital wards have been closed because of the outbreak and that many A&E departments have been put on ‘black’ alert.

Of course this isn’t a new problem, in fact in January of this year it was reported that three million people had been struck down with the illness. That said, for anyone that has contracted norovirus it can be a very unpleasant and upsetting experience.

Once contracted, norovirus is something that can’t be avoided but there are some things that patients can do to make the ride a little smoother:

- While there is no specific treatment, you must let the illness run its course. Have plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids to avoid dehydration

- Good hygiene is essential, wash your hands regularly and thoroughly with soap and water

- Avoid direct contact with other people. Norovirus is extremely contagious and is easily passed from person to person.

- While the symptoms only usually last for 48 hours, it is vital that you wait at least another two days after all the symptoms have gone, before returning to work or school.

As regular readers of the Check Safety First blog will remember, last month we ran a web poll to find out what holidaymakers look for when booking a holiday? – Location, facilitates, star rating of the hotel, price or health and safety standards. And if we are honest, we were slightly dumbstruck by the results.

95 per cent of respondents did not consider the health and safety standards of hotels and resorts before they book their annual break. The research also revealed that 76 per cent of holidaymakers only looked at location and price when booking, and did not consider the safety standards of the resorts at all. Surprisingly, as little as 11 per cent of consumers considered the facilities of the resort as a priority before making their final purchase decision.

While, it is inevitable that location and price will be high on the list for travellers when booking their breaks, we are shocked at how low down the list personal health falls. What people seem to forget is that their dream holiday in the Maldives could quickly turn into a nightmare if they contract food poisoning or injure themselves by diving into unmarked shallow water. It is essential that travellers check with their travel agent to see if the hotel has experienced any recent outbreaks and if it has a health and safety system in place.

We have a new poll up and running now and we would be very grateful if you could take an extra minute of your time to complete it – thank you J

Last week, Hollywood actor Josh Hartnett had to pull out of four performances of the West End play, Rain Man, after contracting food poisoning. He was taken to hospital after suffering from intense stomach pains, where they confirmed that the tinseltown star was suffering from the food-related illness.

Anyone that has experienced food poisoning, will understand how incapacitating and frightening this illness can be for the patient. Josh is the second celebrity in the last month to have suffered this ill-gotten fate, and for this reason we have put together some tips for the stars (or the general public) to follow if they do fall victim:

1. Unfortunately, once you get food poisoning there is little you can do except let it run its course.  The most important thing is not to get dehydrated.  Drink plenty of water – little and often.  It’s often a good idea to use rehydration salts for children to ensure that they keep their fluid levels high.
2. Keep yourself to yourself, in some cases the infection could be passed on to others.
3. Blockage tablets don’t solve the problem of diarrhoea.  The body needs to rid itself of the toxins so, unless it is absolutely vital, tablets should be used sparingly.
4. Antibiotics are occasionally prescribed to treat some cases. Live yoghurt and honey, contain natural “good bacteria” and may help the recovery.   
5. If the symptoms continue or are severe – excessive nausea and vomiting, high temperature or bloody diarrhoea – then consult your doctor immediately.
6. If you think that your illness was caused by food prepared outside the home, report the incident to your local environmental health service.

This week we are pleased to announce that our first hotel in the Czech Republic, the Hotel Barceló in Prague, is available on CheckSafetyFirst.com. This hotel has achieved exceptional standards in health and safety, and is now eligible to be listed on our global database for the travelling public.

We are very proud of this, not only because it is Check Safety First’s inaugural hotel in the country, but it’s also our first foray into Eastern Europe.

With people’s purse strings tightening due to the credit crunch, travellers are looking closer to home for their annual holiday, bookings for destinations like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland predicted to almost double over the next two years. So it’s great to see that Eastern European hotels are taking the health and safety of their guests very seriously.

We hope that the Hotel Barceló is the first of many from this fast growing destination to be eligible for the site.