Staff hygiene training: plan, attendance log and refreshers

Staff training is often treated as a box to tick at hiring. The issue is that food hygiene isn't static: menus change, new equipment arrives, seasonal staff join, and each time training should be updated, not just filed away.

Why you need a plan, not a one-off course

An internal training plan defines what to teach, to whom, how often, and how comprehension is checked. Without a plan, training depends on the shift manager's memory, and every staff turnover leaves a gap.

Minimum content to cover

• Personal hygiene: handwashing, glove use, managing cuts and illness
• Cross-contamination and separation of preparation areas
• Critical temperatures: cooking, holding, blast chilling, storage
• Correctly reading and labelling allergens and expiry dates
• How and where to log a non-conformity
• Cleaning and sanitation procedures specific to the role

The attendance and certificate log

Every training session should be logged with date, topics covered, duration, trainer, and a signed list of attendees. Certificates from mandatory external courses, where required, should be kept alongside the internal log, not in a separate folder nobody checks.

1. Session date and duration
2. Topics covered, referencing the training plan
3. Trainer's name (internal or external)
4. Signed list of attendees
5. Any comprehension check and its outcome

Periodic refreshers

A refresher should be scheduled at least once a year, and whenever procedures, menus or equipment change. New hires must be trained before working unsupervised on critical tasks, not "whenever there's time".