Over the years we have experienced a broad range of circumstances with regards to serving food from a catering van, it is important that you carry out your own research with your local authorities and comply where necessary. By carrying out your own investigations and staying ahead of legislation and trading laws in the catering van arena, you will be ahead of 90% of your competition.
In our experience there are many traders operating who don’t prepare food in bacterially clean kitchens, keep records of chilled foods and hot foods in transit and there are operators out there who don’t abide by sell by dates. These operators are placing their consumers at risk every time they sell a sandwich or serve up a tray of chili con carne on a jacket potato.
We use these weaknesses and service gaps to our advantage each and every day, after all which businesses out there want staff away from the office for days after consuming poorly prepared food?
By doing your homework with regards to basic food hygiene you will no doubt be ahead of your competition, this is a big tick! A test of this is if you have the courage to invite the EHO (Environmental Health Officer) to your premises and demonstrate your ability to comply with regulations, when they have completed their assessment of you and your operation, they will grade you with a Star Rating between 1-5. How many of your competitors can demonstrate a 5 Star EHO assessment? How many businesses are aware that you have the 5 star rating against all of the others who have no rating? This is a huge USP for your business and one that you should be taking advantage of.
We issue a newsletter/flyer to all of our catering van customers telling them that we have achieved a 5 star EHO score, in addition to this we also display a copy of the certificate on each of our vans. This re-enforces the fact that we operate hygienically when the customers stand in a queue at the van which in turn assures them that they can trust our preparation process.
For more information on EHO and food guidelines check the Food Standards Agency website.
