Food preparation

Cross-contamination during preparation happens mainly in three ways:
• food to food (e.g. touching and dripping)
• food to hand (e.g. handling by kitchen staff)
• food to equipment (e.g. sharing of utensils and chopping boards)

Examples include cutting up fish and shellfish and spillage from batters or sauces containing milk, eggs or wheat.

If you think that the controls you have put in place to minimise the risk of cross-contamination are not going to be effective enough for a person with a severe food allergy, you must ensure this is communicated to the food-allergic customer. You may consider putting up a notice inviting customers to talk to staff.

• If you offer nut-free alternatives, prepare them first and pre-wrap them for additional precaution.

• Always clean the work area, utensils, hands and possibly aprons after handling key allergens and before preparing other foods which don't contain them. Soap and hot water have been shown to be the most effective in removing allergen traces.

• If possible, keep certain preparations areas nut-free

• Never include major allergenic foods as an ingredient or as a garnish unless it is essential to the recipe.

• Never use major allergens as casual substitutions for a given dish (e.g. Do not replace olive oil with walnut oil in your salad dressings)

• Don’t let nuts, seeds, fish and shellfish touch food that do not have those ingredients

• Think before cooking with oils that have been used to cook other foods

Always clean an area thoroughly before preparing foods, particularly if you have been handling the most common allergens.