Catering at Rallies

[denis M]

I apologise if I have posted this in the wrong section but I thought it might be looked at here more.

In July each year my society, the City of Oxford S.M.E, hold our Dreaming Spires rally and as usual the ladies do us proud by putting on a good spread of rolls, sandwiches, burgers, cakes etc during the day and we have a Fish and Chip supper on the Saturday evening.

This year how ever it would seem that we may have to have someone in the catering section with an NVQ in food hygiene so I was just wondering on behalf of the wife what others do.

It is just to cover the food served on the day and cakes made by the ladies at home as I would think the Fish and Chips are covered by the shop we get them from.

Any comments welcome.

Denis

[ejparrott]

We sell only pre packaged items.

[smallbrother]

My son did an NVQ on line in a few hours.

It was very straightforward, C and G accredited and cost about £15.

[Deleted]

I've got a food hygiene certificate from when I worked in the Pub/Club trade so that's displayed behind our food counter. Hopefully that covers us. I was told by one of the members that it is now a requirement to display all the ingredients that go into the food that you sell. I haven't actually checked that out yet so I don't know whether it applies to just 'home made' produce or bought stuff as well.

If you are selling to Joe Public you have to be very careful nowadays.

John

[steamcoal]

I wondered when this would come up for interest amongst the punters.

Ok I am not from the UK but I was reading the Southern or Northern Federation website and I read that there was a list of information sheets, twelve or thirteen of them I think, and how many actually had something to do with running miniature locomotives...about 4 or 5 only.

I though to myself, my God. How can people put themselves in a position where the guts have been taken out of a hobby they joined for pleasure. There are so many rules and regulations that it nearly impossible to run without being told you need to be a social worker, caterer or some form of child minder and have a police criminal check. You have people wandering around with fluro vests and other shouting at kiddies to put their arms down, face the front etc. I have no problem with boiler certs and insurance but their it finishes.

I wonder how many of you thought it would come to this when you joined the hobby, for it is a hobby and a past time to escape the hum drum of work to burn some coal, drink some tea and talk rubbish?

When I read those food sheet and saw that you have to declare every nut and allergenic in what ever is food provided I just thought what the H&@l is this all coming to. All this just to drive a miniature steam train around a track. That is not model engineering and never will be and has no part in the hobby.

I can see why private railways are appearing and they offer relief from this beauracratic nightmare. We are building ours and we will build it how we darn well like!

Ahhhhh.....feel much better now.

[ejparrott]

That's why selling pre=packaged is so good, it's all labelled already, we don't have to do anything

[steamcoal]

Guys, well I got a few likes for that post…I might be deported to Australia if I go against he establishment too much. Unfortunately I will die of starvation as nearly everything that I like to eat is listed as bad on the Food Information Regulation ( 2013) list, even bread.


If we ever get found out that we run at our track, scones and cream ( its on the list as a dairy product) for afternoon tea and then God Bless, fish'n chips plus a beer for sunset dinner you could just imagine what mayhem would break out at the committee meeting.

We would be struck off for…..enjoying ourselves!!

Just look at that list. It makes you cry.

Its a blasted hobby, and I'm a nut so there!

Information Sheets
Register of changes and updates

1 Child Protection Act
2 Disability Discrimination Act
3 Insurance Indemnity on giving advice on design - Withdrawn
4 Fire Safety Law
5 Insurance Claims and Incidents - Withdrawn
6 Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (SVG) Act 2006
7 Performing Rights Society Licences
8 Boiler Testing Documentation and other publications - Withdrawn
9 CE Marking of Boilers
10 Health and Safety
11 Pressure Systems Safety
12 Pressure Equipment Regulations
13 Southern Federation Spring and Autumn Rallies
14 Commercial Activities and Miniature Railways - Withdrawn
15 The New Boiler Test Code and Associated Documentation
16 Fee for Intervention by the HSE
17 Trees - Insurance Cover and the HSE
18 Data Protection Policy
19 Food Information Regulations 2013

[jma1009]

for nut allergy,
have a look at this short clip...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr8erYI5LR4

you do have to be very careful sometimes (!)

[steam4ian]

If you are catering for a rally then presumably you are providing for members od kindred clubs and in that respect it is a private function. Include the cost of catering as a non separable item in the cost of entry/registration.

If you are selling to the public that would be another thing. It may then be wise to franchise out the food to somebody with a caravan and take a percentage of their sales.

Never fear, being exported to Australia means you still come up against the same bureaucratic nonsense.

Ian

[heyfordian18]

Denis,
start by contacting the Environmental Health Team at your local council.
Register the Society as a Food Business and get 2 or 3 members with Level 2 Food Hygiene certification through an on-line course.
Look at INformation Sheet 19 on the Southern Federation website.
If you would like more information please send me a PM.

[denis M]

Many thanks for all who took the trouble to reply and offer help on this and also to Alan Budd of NAMES who rang me, I think I know which way to go now so it has been a great help.

Can I just comment on the posting by steamcoal, I do not want to get into a slanging match but feel that I would like to reply.
Yes, this country is full of stupid rules and regulations that have been introduced and yes, we all feel they are over the top but it is the country that I live in and like it or not I have to go along with it's rules and the law, I have one X at election time and thats about it.

You mention that this is not part of Model Engineering and yes I agree with you but it is part of what enables us to run our locomotives at our club site and it should also be mentioned that some of us take the trouble to allow others to have a good time. Believe me running a weekend Rally is a hard task but worth every bit when the visitors and friends have enjoyed themselves. Oh and by the way the Fish and Chip we have are excellent.

We have no where around us to have a private site so we have to have what we can get.

Thanks again all that have helped.

Regards and happy steaming.

Denis

[Alan]

It will soon come, when you wont be able to scratch your own arse without a certificate or supervision.

[Tony K]

Feb 25, 2015 23:43:17 GMT Alan said:

It will soon come, when you wont be able to scratch your own arse without a certificate or supervision.

Alan, probably not a good idea if you are on the catering stand anyway? Perhaps seek treatment?

Ello Denis. You've been quiet a while. Sound advice from heyfordian18 - I am sure if you have anything over, we can come over and help you eat it all up!

[steamcoal]

Denis.

I know what you say is correct with regard to keeping the place going, and I suppose their is an obligation placed on you to operate a service when the land has been gift from a local authority.

HSE has crept into every nook and cranny these days and just today on OUR news I hear that kiddies at kindy can no longer get cooked meals unless the providers have a second food plan and pay a further $160. They already have an approved one from the education authority and have operated fine but now the other Government ministry also want theirs.

We just choose the times to steam "out of hours" and avoid the parties and public so I think we should be thankful.

Hope you have a cracker summer steaming too .

Best wishes.

[Deleted]

Strangely this thread about red tape and the other one about operating systems on computers have a lot in common .

Ever increasing compexity and ever more difficulty in understand things completely and ever more contradictory information and ever more difficulty in getting anything useful done .

You will have heard of an entropy death in cosmology . Well there is a conceptually similar idea in information technology - the amount of data in circulation gets ever larger ,  ever more diffuse and ever more self contradictory until one day the whole of the data becomes suddenly corrupt and useless .

We then go back to living in caves .

[marcf]

Can't see it being an issue unless your charging for the food.
I done I food hygiene test a few years ago and it's all just common sense questions