The Food Standards Agency has
produced a Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack especially
for childcarers such as childminders.
The SFBB pack is for registered childcarers, such as
childminders, on domestic premises who usually provide meals and
drinks for the children in their care.
If childminders provide meals, snacks or drinks (apart from
mains tap water) for children or babies and/or reheat food provided
by a parent or carer, or cut it up, they must comply with food
safety and hygiene regulations. These regulations say that they
need to keep a record of what they do to keep food safe.
The pack has been designed to help them comply with these
regulations with as little paperwork as possible. It is based on
the same, easy to use, fact sheet and diary system as the
other SFBB packs, but it is shorter, and has advice tailored to
childminders, including information on feeding babies and children,
cooking, cleaning, chilling and looking after a child with a food
allergy.
It is designed to help childminders:
- Make safer food.
- Protect the health of the children they look after.
- Comply with food hygiene regulations.
As with other SFBB packs, the diary section of the childminders'
pack is based on ‘reporting by exception’, which
means something only needs to be written down
if there is a problem, or if something changes. A
three-monthly review sheet will help them reflect on the past
few months and identify any persistent problems with food
safety.
You can download
Safer Food Better Business for childminders (new
window) from the FSA website. To order a copy call FSA
Publications on 0845 606 0667 or email
foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk.
If you are not sure whether this pack is suitable for you,
contact Suffolk Coastal's Food and Safety team on 01394
444357 or email
foodsafetyteam@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk
for advice.
Registering as a food business
If you are a registered childcarer or childminder on
domestic premises and you usually provide meals and drinks for the
children in your care, you may be required to register as a food
business operator.
Suffolk Coastal's Food and Safety team is responsible for the
registration of food businesses in this district - follow this link
for
more advice for childcarers and
childminders or call 01394
444357.