Last updated on 23 June 2011
Working with diverse communities
As part of the Food Standards Agency's Engagement of Asian Communities Project, the Agency invites local authorities to share good practice and research work aimed at improving food safety awareness among Asian consumers and food businesses in Great Britain.
Examples of good practice identified are available, together with relevant contacts from which further information is available. The Agency is grateful to the local authorities concerned for agreeing to share this information with their colleagues.
Working with diverse communities: local authority good practice and other initiatives
If you wish to notify the Food Standards Agency of other similar initiatives for inclusion in this section, please contact Julian Ciepluch: email: julian.ciepluch@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk, tel: 020 7276 8449
| Area of good practice | Local authority | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| 'Improving the Public Image and the Risk Assessment of Ethnic Minority Food Retail Businesses' - the 'BOLT Project'. | Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council and Salford University | Linda Duckworth tel: 01204 336530 Website: www.bolton.gov.uk email: linda.duckworth@bolton.gov.uk |
| 'Food Hygiene First Package' - this initiative is part of a partnership between Dundee City Council, Dundee College and the Food Standards Agency, involving the translation of a food safety package into Urdu. | Dundee City Council, Dundee College and the Food Standards Agency | Karen Donaldson tel: 01382 834895 Website: www.dundeecoll.ac.uk email: kdonaldson@dundeecoll.ac.uk |
| 'The Somali Project' - The Somali Project has been conducted by Ealing Council's Environmental Health and Trading Standards division (EHTS) with the help and support of the Somali Community. The Food Standards Agency, as part of the National Food Hygiene Campaign, has helped fund the project. The project has run for six months, from June to December 2004. The main target group for this project is the Somali Food Businesses in Ealing, Acton and Southall. | London Borough of Ealing | Ann Hodges tel: 020 8825 7853 Website: www.ealing.gov.uk email: ann.hodges@ealing.gov.uk |
| Illegal meat trade - London Borough of Hackney have taken a series of enforcement actions to combat the illegal meat trade. | London Borough of Hackney | Andrew Foster tel: 0208 356 4902 Website: www.hackney.gov.uk email: andrew.foster@hackney.gov.uk |
| 'Community Education Programme' - in relation to purchase and consumption of illegal/bushmeat. | London Borough of Lambeth | Alice Bimpong tel: 020 7926 6178 Website: www.lambeth.gov.uk email: a.bimpong@lambeth.gov.uk |
| 'Good practice guide for Asian wedding catering' - Slough Borough Council has published a good practice guide for the Asian wedding catering sector. See the Good Practice Guide | Slough Borough Council | Mr Kulwant Randhawa tel: 01753 875255 Website: www.slough.gov.uk email: kulwant.randhawa@slough.gov.uk |
| 'Peckham Programme' - a regeneration project set up in Peckham to improve the social economic prospects of the local community. | London Borough of Southwark | Beryl Morgan tel: 0207 525 5777 Website: www.southwark.gov.uk email: beryl.morgan@southwark.gov.uk |
| 'The Safety of Foods for Ethnic Minorities' - the aim of this project was to establish the food concerns, eating habits and nutritional value of take-away meals and snacks consumed by Asian residents in Burton-Upon-Trent. To achieve the aim, the project set out to determine what concerns (if any) local Asian residents in Burton-Upon-Trent had about food and what they were eating. Using this information, a sampling plan was developed to scientifically analyse any foods of concern to this population group to identify whether their concerns were warranted. | Staffordshire County Council | Nicola Day tel: 01785 277859 Website: www.foodvision.gov.uk email: nicola.day@staffordshire.gov.uk |
| 'Surrey Curry Club' - the Surrey Curry Club has been founded to recognise and promote restaurants and catering establishments in Surrey that prepare their food within the legal guidelines, and use the minimum of additives. Membership of the Surrey Curry Club is restricted to restaurants where dishes have been sampled for additives and have proved to be satisfactory. | Surrey County Council Trading Standards Service | Website: http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/ |
| Claire Wilman tel: 01372 371786 email: claire.wilman@surreycc.gov.uk |
||
| Badrul Islam tel: 0207 655 0906 email: bislam@emep.co.uk |
||
| 'Ethnic Business Support Programme' - EBSP provides business support to ethnic communities within Wales. It is a project, part-financed by the Welsh Development Agency, which is a sponsored body of the Welsh Assembly Government, and part-financed by the European Union. EBSP has also joined forces with FSA Wales and the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities in Wales. | Local authorities in Wales | Mr Saleem Kidwai Website: www.ebsp.org email: saleem@ebsp.ltd.uk |
| Chinatown Hygiene in Partnership - The Chinatown Hygiene Partnership initiative follows on from the very successful ‘Category A Project’ (where a strategic approach was used to significantly improve compliance in persistent high-risk premises through consultation, training, consistency and engagement). It also builds on the excellent relationship with the Chinese community developed through the Chinese MasterChef Competition. The Chinatown initiative aims are to improve hygiene standards within high-risk food businesses (Category A&B) in Chinatown. The initiative has gained support of the London Chinatown Chinese Association, and involves a partnership between the Asian and Oriental School of Catering and WCC using European Social Fund and Learning Skills Council sponsorship funding. The initiative involves free comprehensive training and advice, which will be carried out in Cantonese or Mandarin at the businesses themselves. The School and the Food Team will work closely with the businesses over a period of time to ensure that the training is put into practice, so that hygiene levels improve within the businesses. Outcomes will be measured by category movement as previous high-risk project. | The City of Westminster | Mrs Safia Khokhar BSc tel: 020 7641 1373 Website: www.westminster.gov.uk email: skhokhar@westminster.gov.uk |
| Illegal Food Project - The Illegal Foods Project has been commissioned to establish the extent of the sale and distribution of illegally imported/produced foods within Westminster. The Project Team has set itself objectives on an annual basis to tackle the sale and distribution of illegally produced and imported foods in Westminster. The team carries out a number of activities to police this problem such as: responding to FSA notifications; working in partnership with HM Revenue and Excise, the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS), police and many other agencies; targeting premises and carrying out surveillance in Westminster. The team also provides advice to businesses on the subject of illegal food through an in-house produced leaflet. This leaflet distils the complex legislation into easy-to-understand guidance based around a traffic light system. The pictorial leaflet is available in languages other than English and directs businesses to contact the Food Team for further advice. | James Armitage tel: 0207 641 1205 email: jarmitage@westminster.gov.uk |
|
| Chains - We deal with Head Offices of national and local food chains on a strategic basis to create a strong and professional relationship between Westminster City Council and Chain Organisations. This has allowed Westminster food and health and safety officers to focus on improving both food and health and safety standards within the chain premises by closely liaising with Head Offices and managers of individual chains, therefore encouraging consistency of advice and enforcement throughout the Chain Organisation so that improvements can be made nationally. | Mrs Safia Khokhar BSc tel: 020 7641 1373 email: skhokhar@westminster.gov.uk |
|
| The Chinese Masterchef Competition - The Chinese Masterchef Competition is in its 3rd successful year of running. The annual competition rewards both culinary excellence and high standards of food hygiene within Chinese businesses. This event has built a good working relationship with the Chinese Community as well as working in partnership with Kingsway College and Chinese food businesses in Westminster. External commercial sponsorship is obtained to fully finance the competition and media coverage is gained on a national and local level. | Ms Karen D. Burge tel: 020 7641 1235 email: kburge@westminster.gov.uk |
|
| 'Fast Food, Safe Food' Campaign - an initiative primarily aimed at food handlers preparing Chinese, Turkish or other Asian continent cuisine for whom English is their second language. Participants were required to attend four one hour training sessions, consisting of a short presentation followed by two practical training exercises in which participants had to satisfactorily demonstrate tasks associated with the talk. The four training sessions were based on the Food Standard's Agency's 'Four C's' good hygiene campaign (namely, cleaning, cooking, chilling, and cross-contamination), with each session covering one of the Four C's in turn. A PowerPoint presentation was delivered at each session. The course was supplemented with a colour photobook which depicted 'right' and 'wrong' pictures. Course material and practical exercise instructions have been translated into Bengali, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish (in Word and PDF formats). | City of York Council | Website: www.york.gov.uk |
| Anita Stone tel: 01904 551 510 email: anita.stone@york.gov.uk |
||
| Trish Haswell tel: 01904 551 525 email: trish.haswell@york.gov.uk |
||
| Rachel Lambley tel: 01904 551 509 email: rachel.lambley@york.gov.uk |
