Health and Safety Issues in Restaurants

This document discusses the health and safety issues faced by restaurants, specifically focusing on Cafe Rouge. It explains the definition and explanation of these issues, their importance in Cafe Rouge, and provides recommendations to manage them effectively. The document emphasizes the need for training, providing the right equipment, and maintaining health and safety records. It also highlights the significance of health and safety in retaining employees and customers.

Health and safety issues in
restaurants

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Definition and explanation of health and safety issues at Cafe Rouge.......................................1
Importance of these issues in the Cafe Rouge............................................................................2
Recommendations to manage these issues in Cafe Rouge..........................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Health and safety at the work place helps the business to get aware of different hazards
that may arise while employees are working. Identification of these issues helps in taking
precautions to overcome their impacts(Finucane, 2016). Present study is based in the Restaurant
that is Cafe Rouge founded in the year 1989 and having there headquarter at London, UK. There
are over 70 restaurants all over the UK and is working effectively to provide health and safety at
its workplace. Report will include Health and safety issues that might occur at Cafe Rouge.
Report will further analyse the importance of these issues and finally, report will recommend
different ways to manage these issues at Cafe Rouge.
MAIN BODY
Definition and explanation of health and safety issues at Cafe Rouge
Health and safety is the risk assessment that identifies different hazards and potential
harm that employees or the customers taking services may face while they take services from the
organisation. There are different health and safety issues that hospitality business face while
offering services to its customers. It is the responsibility of the employees and employers as they
together share the issues and impacts that health and safety of the organisation(Holt and Allen,
2015). Employers have legal obligations in order to make sure that the working environment is
safe and secure for the Restaurants and they are working without having any risk to their health.
Employers have to identify the hazards that can arise at the workplace and accordingly have to
implement different measures in order to control the risks. There are different issues that Cafe
Rouge face related to health and safety at its workplace and these issues are as following:-
 Dangerous Machinery and Equipment:- There are different equipments that are used at
Cafe Rouge in order to prepare delicious food for the customers. These equipments are
designed in order to cut and chop the food items. The accidental potential is huge for the
employees and it is the duty of the employers to make them train so that they learn the
use of equipments effectively. There are different machines also that employees use in
order to prepare the food items and these machines can bring serious harm to these
employees if not used effectively. Organisation is required to make the employees aware
about the use of cut resistant gloves that they can use to protect their wrist and figure
parts(Kim And et.al., 2018)
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 Injuries from heavy lifting:- There are chances that heavy lifting at kitchen may result
in sprains and strains and that lead to severe injuries to the working employees at Cafe
Rouge. It is responsibility of the organisation to provide back belts to its employees
during the inventory days as it helps in reducing the respective issues. For the same
training is required for the employees so that they can follow the measures in order to
protect themselves from these safety issues.
 Burn and Chemical Hazards:- At the surfaces of the kitchen where the employees at
Restaurant works are quite hot and oily. There are chances that the employees may get
injured from the hot liquids while they are cooking the food and for the same, it is duty of
the employers to provide them Long-sleeved jackets and bib aprons. There are also
different cleaning supplies and sanitizers having different chemicals that may result as a
hazard for the employees. It is very important to have first aid kit and also eye washing
station in the kitchen so that immediate treatment can be given to burns and cuts(Tiwari,
2015)..
 Food safety hazard:- Health and safety at cafe Rouge is not only the issue for employees
but it also can create health issues for the customers. Cross contamination between high
risk and low risk food can create problem for the customers and the cause of these issues
are the usage of same equipments without cleaning them as it results in contamination of
the food items(Asiegbu, Lebelo and Tabit, 2016).
 Improper storage:- Another issue is the improper storage or improper thawing of the
frozen foods. Employees may reheat the prepared food and that can create some health
issue for the customers. Employees have to be trained that the hot food have to be heated
at 140 degrees and the cold food is required to be freeze at 40 degrees in order to have
limited bacterial growth. Employers are required to closely monitor these employees so
that they can follow the set rules with respect to the health and safety of customers as
well as of themselves. They have to be enforced with habit of hand washing and must be
motivated to take appropriate precautions while working in the Kitchen.
Importance of these issues in the Cafe Rouge
Identification of the respective issues that business is facing with respect to the health and
safety at work is very important in following ways:-
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1. Health at safety at work place helps the employees and customers to be protected from
different hazards that can cause health issues to them. Business usually lose potential
staff and also customers if the health and safety is not taken seriously. This results in
lower profitability of the Restaurant as it leads to illness and injury to the respective
working employees(da CUNHA, de ROSSO and Stedefeldt, 2016).
 The importance of health and safety at Cafe Rouge is to design, provide and maintain the
workplace without causing any risk to health and safety of working employees as well as
the customers that trusts the restaurant. If issues are identified in right manner, then the
effective practices can be developed as well as can be implemented so that the business
have proper measures in order to reduce health and safety risk.
 Cafe Rouge is required to identify these issues and work effectively for the health and
well being of its employees as not following the same may leads to imprisonment,
different fines and loss of the business.
 It is important to work of these issues as it is costly for the business if they avoid safety at
the workplace. Identifying the respective risk helps Cafe Rouge to reduce these risks and
it also reduces the workplace stress. It keeps the supervisors updated about different
hazardous risks that can occur at the workplace and it makes them work to create safety
working culture of the employees(Rebouças And et.al., 2017).
 It also creates productive work environment where the employees can manage the safety
at the workplace and employers can bring a great safety culture. It also results in less
absenteeism of the employees as managing these risks helps in creating higher standard
of the business. It also decreases the employee insurance claim and that results in
decrease in WCB rates and makes them encourage working effectively.
 The working employees are the key assets of the business that can be protected with the
risk management strategies of Cafe Rouge and it also brings opportunity for the
Restaurant to make their customers retain for longer period. Building trust of the
employees is very important for the Restaurant and it is all possible with the help of
implementing safety at the workplace.
 In order to have a brand value and goodwill for the company, these safety issues are
required to managed effectively. Safety usually reduces business cost and disruption in
order to have productive work environment. Organisations that are having an effective
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risk management strategies can effectively deal with the uncertain hazards. It also
developed the trust of working employees that organisation is having concern for them
and for their safety(Yun and Kang, 2016).
 It is also important for the business in order to stay alert from different injuries or
fatalities. There are many employees at Cafe Rouge that ignore the alerts of warning. So,
this helps the business to make their employees quite aware about these measures that can
help them to be protected from different workplace hazards.
Recommendations to manage these issues in Cafe Rouge
Business can manage these issues at Cafe Rouge in following manner:-
 Training have to be provided to the employees that are working in kitchen at Cafe Rouge
and this can be make a part of their induction so that they are quite aware of the business
activities before they join the Restaurant. This must be set as there priority and it is the
duty of the employers to review the working condition of employees on daily bases in
order to analyse that they are following the rules and regulations in consistent way or not.
If any new machines or equipments are introduced at the workplace, they have to be
trained effectively so that they learn to use the same. If any new policies with respect to
the health and safety are introduced by the government or by the higher authorities, with
different mediums they have to communicated to each and every employee(Harris And
et.al., 2015).
 It is also important for the business to provide right equipments to the employees. There
are different mechanical sharpening systems that can be used by employees of Cafe
Rouge in order to avoid the risks and employers also have to work in providing knives
wear hand and arm protection to the working staff in Kitchen.
 Cafe rouge is required to place splatter guards around the deep fryers and also at the hot
surfaces. Employers also have to ensure that the working employees near flames are
protected with the use of aprons and gloves.
 Employees are also required to have counsellings so that they can work without feeling
stressful. They also be allowed to take sick leaves if they are sufferings from any health
related issue.
 It is very important for Cafe Rouge to understand the actual risk that can cause harm to
people working at the Restaurant and have to work on these risks effectively. It is also
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very important to reduce the workplace stress at it lower down the productivity of the
business and also results in different health issues among the working staff(Lundgren and
McMakin, 2018).
 This can become more effective if business creates an effective health and safety plan.
Cafe Rouge eliminates potential risk with the help of health and safety plan and also
works to communicate to the employees about the motive and implementation of the
respective plan. Restaurant have to make all the employees train so that they can have a
clear understanding of the respective role that they have to play in order to bring safer
working culture altogether.
 Regular meetings can also be initiated by the employers where they can communicate to
the employees about their work and performance. The suggestion of the employees are
also very important in order to have clear understanding of the problems that employees
are facing with respect to safety issues. Take the view points of these employees and
work accordingly in order to make them feel that they are quite safe while working in
Cafe Rouge.
 Business is also required to maintain health and safety records and update the same on
daily bases. This can help the business to have a visibility over all the health and safety
issues that occurred previously at the Restaurant so that proper measures can be taken in
near future. It also helps the business to have transparency at the workplace so that higher
standard of health and safety measures can be implemented by Cafe Rouge(Samano-Rios
and et.al., 2019).
 Time to time inspection is also very important for the business as it helps in finding new
approaches of having health and safety at workplace. It brings opportunity for the
business to identify the potential hazards and also the layout of the workplace.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is been concluded that it is very important for the business to
have an effective health and safety at the workplace in order to achieve business productivity.
Report also concluded that it play important role to retain the employees as well as customers
and there are different measures that business can adopt in order to have an effective health and
safety at the workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asiegbu, C.V., Lebelo, S.L. and Tabit, F.T., 2016. The food safety knowledge and microbial
hazards awareness of consumers of ready-to-eat street-vended food. Food Control. 60.
pp.422-429.
da CUNHA, D.T., de ROSSO, V.V. and Stedefeldt, E., 2016. Should weights and risk categories
be used for inspection scores to evaluate food safety in restaurants?. Journal of food
protection. 79(3). pp.501-506.
Finucane, E.W., 2016. Definitions, conversions, and calculations for occupational safety and
health professionals. CRC Press.
Harris, K.J. And et.al., 2015. Food safety inspections results: A comparison of ethnic-operated
restaurants to non-ethnic-operated restaurants. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. 46. pp.190-199.
Holt, A.S.J. and Allen, J., 2015. Principles of health and safety at work. Routledge.
Kim, Y.K. And et.al., 2018. Differences in the performance of health officers at the workplace
according to their qualifications. Annals of occupational and environmental medicine.
30(1). p.35.
Lundgren, R.E. and McMakin, A.H., 2018. Risk communication: A handbook for communicating
environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley & Sons.
Rebouças, L.T. And et.al., 2017. Food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers, head
chefs and managers in hotels' restaurants of Salvador, Brazil. Food Control. 73. pp.372-
381.
Samano-Rios, M.L. And et.al., 2019. Occupational safety and health interventions to protect
young workers from hazardous work–A scoping review. Safety science. 113. pp.389-403.
Tiwari, R.R., 2015. Situational Analysis of occupational health issues of restaurant and dhaba
workers. Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs.
Yun, Y.H. and Kang, K.S., 2016. Restaurants settled and health management awareness of
employees of the Health Education System. Journal of the Korea Safety Management and
Science. 18(1). pp.179-190.
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