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The following questions will help you work out whether you've done all the main things you need to do when setting up a catering business. Some of these are general requirements and some of them relate specifically to food hygiene.
- Have you registered your premises?
- Do the design and construction of your premises meet legal requirements?
- Have you considered health and safety and fire safety arrangements?
- Do you and your staff understand the principles of good food hygiene?
- Have you and your staff had food hygiene training?
- Have you considered what food safety problems there could be at each stage of your business?
- Have you put the necessary food safety procedures in place and are you making regular checks to make sure they are working?
- Have you registered as self-employed?
- Do you need to register for VAT?
- Are you keeping records of all your business income and expenses?
- Are you keeping records of your employees' pay and do you know how to pay their tax and National Insurance contributions?
- Do you describe food and drink accurately?
- Do you need to apply for a licence to sell alcohol?
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Cooking Safely at Christmas
(07 December 2007)
Preparing poultry
It's very important to keep raw poultry away from food that is ready to eat. This is because if raw poultry, or other raw meat, touches (or drips onto) these foods, bacteria will spread.
Remember, bacteria can also spread from raw meat and poultry to worktops, chopping boards, dishes and utensils. So, to keep your Christmas food safe, remember to do the following things:
Always wash your hands with warm water and soap, and dry them thoroughly, after touching raw poultry.
Don't wash your turkey (or other poultry) – this is because bacteria can splash onto worktops, dishes and other foods. Proper cooking will kill any bacteria, so you don't need to wash poultry.
Always clean worktops, chopping boards, dishes and utensils thoroughly after they have touched raw poultry.
Never use the same chopping board for raw poultry and ready-to-eat food without washing it thoroughly in warm soapy water. (If possible, use a separate chopping board just for raw meat and poultry).
When you are storing raw meat, to help stop bugs spreading you should remember to:
Always keep raw poultry away from other foods.
Store raw poultry at the bottom of the fridge so it can't drip onto other foods.
This advice applies to poultry such as turkey, chicken, duck and goose, and game such as partridge and pheasant.
Cooking poultry
It's very important to plan your cooking time in advance, to make sure you get the bird in the oven early enough to cook it thoroughly. A large turkey can take several hours to cook properly.
How to check your bird is cooked
These cooking guidelines are only estimates; always check that the bird is properly cooked before serving, because eating undercooked turkey (or other poultry) could cause food poisoning.
These are the three main ways to tell if poultry is cooked:
the meat should be piping hot all the way through
when you cut into the thickest part of the meat, none of the meat should be pink
if juices run out when you pierce the turkey, or when you press the thigh, they should be clear
How long to cook
These cooking times are based on an unstuffed bird. It's better to cook your stuffing in a separate roasting tin, rather than inside the bird, so it will cook more easily and cooking guidelines will be more accurate. (If you cook your bird with the stuffing inside, you will need to allow extra time for the amount of stuffing and allow for the fact that it cooks more slowly.)
Remember some ovens, such as fan-assisted ovens, might cook the bird more quickly – check the manufacturer's handbook for your oven if you can. Always check that the meat is cooked thorougly before serving.
As a general guide, in an oven preheated to 180ºC (350ºF, Gas Mark 4):
for a turkey under 4.5kg, allow 45 minutes per kg plus 20 minutes
for a turkey weighing between 4.5kg and 6.5kg, allow 40 minutes per kg
for a turkey over 6.5kg, allow 35 minutes per kg
Tip: Cover your turkey with foil during cooking and uncover for the last 30 minutes to brown the skin. To stop the meat drying out, baste it every hour during cooking.
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