Carmarthenshire Council kitchens upgraded
More than £600,000 was spent upgrading 75 Carmarthenshire Council kitchens in 2010/11, with improvements including the re-painting of kitchen walls and ceilings, replacing shelves and counters and re-tiling.
Floors have also been laid and new windows installed in a small number of schools, along with new dishwashers and ovens.
Sandra Weigel, catering services manager, said: “We are constantly monitoring all of our school kitchens to ensure they are up to standard and fit for our staff to prepare school meals.
“We hold regular inspections, and in those kitchens where we identified the need for improvement, we have acted quickly to ensure that any minor issues did not become a problem.
“It is very satisfying to see the investment we have put in to school kitchens reflected so well in the gradings awarded by Environmental Health inpectors.”
Inspections are carried out unannounced by the Environmental Health Agency.
It awards five stars when the kitchen demonstrates a very high standard of compliance with food safety legislation and best practice in managing and achieving this.
It awards four stars when a kitchen shows a high standard of compliance with food safety legislation with robust food safety management.
And three stars are awarded when a kitchen demonstrates a good level of legal compliance, and where only minor safety issues have not been addressed.
Cllr Gwynne Wooldridge, executive board member for education and children’s services, said: “Having a clean and safe environment in which to prepare school meals is absolutely essential, which is why our staff, along with colleagues in Environmental Health, regularly carry out stringent inspections to make sure that every kitchen meets the standards which we expect.”
Floors have also been laid and new windows installed in a small number of schools, along with new dishwashers and ovens.
Sandra Weigel, catering services manager, said: “We are constantly monitoring all of our school kitchens to ensure they are up to standard and fit for our staff to prepare school meals.
“We hold regular inspections, and in those kitchens where we identified the need for improvement, we have acted quickly to ensure that any minor issues did not become a problem.
“It is very satisfying to see the investment we have put in to school kitchens reflected so well in the gradings awarded by Environmental Health inpectors.”
Inspections are carried out unannounced by the Environmental Health Agency.
It awards five stars when the kitchen demonstrates a very high standard of compliance with food safety legislation and best practice in managing and achieving this.
It awards four stars when a kitchen shows a high standard of compliance with food safety legislation with robust food safety management.
And three stars are awarded when a kitchen demonstrates a good level of legal compliance, and where only minor safety issues have not been addressed.
Cllr Gwynne Wooldridge, executive board member for education and children’s services, said: “Having a clean and safe environment in which to prepare school meals is absolutely essential, which is why our staff, along with colleagues in Environmental Health, regularly carry out stringent inspections to make sure that every kitchen meets the standards which we expect.”
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