C 355/8
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
16.9.2022
7.2.
EU guides in accordance with Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 Several European sectorial stakeholders' organisations have developed EU guides for good hygiene practice.
The list of these guides can be consulted at: https://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biological-safety/food-hygiene/guidance-platform_en.
In some cases, the European Commission provided sector specific guidance itself, in particular when the FBOs are often small businesses: — Commission Notice providing guidance on food safety management systems for food retail activities, including food donations (18) (‘Commission Notice on retail’); — Commission notice on guidance document on addressing microbiological risks in fresh fruits and vegetables at primary production through good hygiene (19). 8.
TRAINING
Staff of FBOs should be supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters appropriate to their role, and those responsible for developing and maintaining the food safety management system should be suitably trained in the application of GHP, other PRP and HACCP–based procedures.
The management shall make sure that staff taking part in the relevant processes demonstrate sufficient skills and are aware of the hazards identified (if any) and of the critical points in the production, storage, transport and/or distribution process.
They must also show awareness of the corrective measures, the preventive measures and monitoring and recording procedures applicable in the business, in accordance with Chapter XII of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 852/2004.
A distinction should be made between training on hygiene in general (all employees) and specific HACCP training.
The employees who monitor/manage or verify critical control points (CCP) should be trained in the procedures based on the HACCP principles appropriate to their tasks (for example, a waiter/waitress will need a certain level of hygiene training, while a cook will need additional training related to the hygienic preparation of food).
Possible refresher training and its frequency should be considered according to the needs of the establishment and demonstrated skills.
The stakeholders' organisations of different food industry sectors should endeavour to prepare information on training for the FBOs.
Training as referred to in Chapter XII of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 must be seen in a broad context.
In such context, appropriate training does not necessarily involve participation in formal training courses.
Skills and knowledge can also be achieved through access to technical information and advice from professional organisations or from the competent authorities, suitable on-the-job/in house training, and guides to good practice etc.
GHP, other PRP and HACCP training of staff in food businesses should be proportionate to the size and the nature of the business and take into account specific risks related to the nature of the activity.
The importance of training has been enhanced due to the introduction of the (mandatory) requirement for a food safety culture in Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 in March 2021.
Training will often be the most important tool to achieve a good food safety culture or to serve as corrective action in case shortcomings are detected when evaluating the extent of the food safety culture (See Annex I, section 4.14).
The competent authority may, when needed, assist in developing training activities as mentioned in previous paragraphs, especially in those sectors which are poorly organised or are shown to be insufficiently informed.
Such assistance is comprehensively elaborated in the ‘FAO/WHO guidance to governments on the application of HACCP in small and/or less-developed food businesses (20)’.
(18) OJ C 199, 12.6.2020, p. 1.
(19) OJ C 163, 23.5.2017, p. 1.
(20) http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0799e/a0799e00.HTM