Food Safety Assessment Part 2

What does the Health Protection Officer at the District Health Board do?

• The HPO is based in Dunedin and only comes to Central Otago on holiday.

• The HPO comes to visit the shop and gives training and advice. They then come back in a few weeks and check that the improvement has continued.

• The HPO - Helps Put Out fires in fish and chip shops.

An enabler in Food Safety is

• A small rabbit

• Something or someone which helps you do something - they en able you

• A electronic device for finding electric currents

A strategy is a possible way of solving a problem or situation. So a strategy is a solution.

• True

• False

An advantage is a good thing about something or a situation.

Which of these shows an advantage?

• If I talk to the manager he can get the food handling problem solved straight away so no one else gets sick. The advantage is that the problem is solved straight away.

• If I do nothing about the food handling problem at the shop, other people in the community will get sick. There are no advantages to this strategy.

A disavantage is a bad or not so good thing about a situation

Which of these situations shows a disadvantage?

• If I ring the Health Protection Officer at The District health Board, he won't come straight away, so the food handling problem will continue.

• If I have my pocket money I can buy an icecream.

• If I talk to the manager he will correct the food handling problem straight away.

Who is a good person to contact about a food handling problem at a shop?

• The Prime Minister

• The Ministry of Health

• The Health Protection Officer ( HPO) at the Local District Health Board.

If you didn't know how to contact the Health Protection Officer (HPO) at the District Health Board (DHB), that would be a barrier( something that made your planned action hard)

How could you find out how to contact the HPO?

• Look at the DHB website.

• Look in the telephone book

• Both answers are correct.

By lookin up the phone number for the HPO on the DHB website or looking in the phone book you have overcome the barrier to taking action about the food handling problem. Which is corect?

• By finding the phone number or email address for the HPO you have now turned the barrier into an enabler, as you can now carry out the action you had planned to do to solve the problem..

• By finding the phone number or email address for the HPO you have now made the problem worse, as he won't be interested in travelling all the way from Dunedin to talk to the shop staff, so the problem won't be solved.

Often the best option is to select 2 strategies to solve the problem, now pick the best strategy (solutions).

• Talk to your friends and none of you shop there again. this will make sure that you and your friends don't get food poisoning from that shop.

• Talk to the manager who will solve the food handling problem straight away. This is an immediate solution, which will protect you and the community from food poisoing.

• Then contact the HPO, who will come from Dunedin over the next week, give the staff training, and come back and check that things have improved. This will solve the problem in the longer term, as you and the community won't get food poisoning from the food handling problems

• Contact the owner and threaten to blackmail him over the food handling problems in his shop. He will fix things, you and other people in the community won't get sick from the food handling problems and he will give you money.

• Answers 2 and 3 are the best ways to solve this food handling problem

What is a barrier in Food safety?

• A high wall that you can't climb over.

• Something that makes taking action ( and solving a problem) hard to do

• A sticking plaster over a wound.