UKHospitality: Incidental advice

Our newly published Food Incident Guide is one that contract caterers will certainly be keen to get their hands on. Here’s why.

Contract catering facilities, like other hospitality venues, are busy working environments in which unpredictable incidents will invariably occur. Our comprehensive, 57-page guide, which is exclusive to UKHospitality members, sets out not only how contract caterers and other hospitality businesses should respond to incidents at their premises and venues, but also what their responsibilities and legal obligations are when it comes to such occurrences.

Featuring expert advice and sponsored by Food Alert – one of the leading names in food safety and health and safety – the Food Incident Guide covers a wide range of likely incidents, from loss of power and water supply challenges to spills, breakages and suspected food crime. It also covers enforcement, allergens, customer complaints, flooding and more.

Crucially, key elements of the guide contain assured advice under our primary authority partnership with Cornwall County Council. This means that contract caterers and other hospitality businesses following the guidance can be fully confident that they’re complying with their legal requirements. Not only that, but it also means that the guide is recognised as the leading document governing incidents in our sector.

Meticulous planning and preparation, as well as knowing exactly what to do when an incident occurs, is vitally important, for both staff and customers. So, whether it’s a loss of power, a flood or a safety incident, UKHospitality’s new Food Incident Guide provides businesses across our industry with the tools they require to deal with the incident quickly, on a practical basis, and at the same time complying with their legal requirements.

When we launched the guide at our recent Serving Britain: the future of food seminar, Food Alert managing director Fraser Parramint said: “As food safety partners of UKHospitality, we are pleased to have collaborated on a second guide designed to support hospitality businesses. The Food Incident Guide offers clear, actionable steps that empower teams to respond confidently and compliantly to a wide range of scenarios, based on our 30-plus years of hands-on experience.

“In high-pressure environments like hospitality, having structured, expert-led guidance is critical — not just for legal compliance, but for maintaining customer trust and business continuity.”

At what is already a perilous time for thousands of hospitality businesses, UKHospitality is determined to continue to provide the kind of support that helps them deal with – and avoid in the first place – the sort of incidents that will add to their already significant problems and costs. I’m confident you’ll find it an invaluable resource to have at hand.

For more on our latest guide, please visit ukhospitality.org.uk/guidance/food-incident-guide. Indeed, the Food Incident Guide is one of several documents available to members, covering everything from allergen guidance and packaging, to the Employment Rights Bill and visitor levies.

We’re the only hospitality trade body covering the food sector in this way, which is so important for contract caterers, in particular. We’re proud to have so many caterers already in membership, but if you’re one of the few that isn’t, you can also find out more about joining on our website.

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