Association update

FACE MASK DISCRIMINATION

Take care about insisting that customers wear a face mask. A disabled woman has been paid £7,000 in compensation by a service provider who refused her access to a service because she was unable to wear a face mask. The pay-out was achieved through negotiation as there was no dispute that access had been denied, or that the claimant had a disability exemption. The only thing to be agreed was the amount of compensation, not whether it was due or not. The best advice is that if a customer says they are exempted you need to accept that what they are telling you is correct.

RECYCLING SURVEY

In a programme aired last year, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall highlighted the environmental issues around sandwich packs and questioned claims that they can be recycled. In response to this and other environmental lobbies around this, our Association has set up a working group to address the issues and how we can better collect and deliver used packs to recycling plants that can handle them. As part of this, we are looking at a number of possible solutions and would welcome your help with this project. The following survey only takes a couple of minutes to complete but will give us useful information to work with.

You can fi nd the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ PackagingRecyclingSurvey

Your answers will be treated in strict confi dence and will only be seen by the Association secretariat.

LISTERIA AND SWEETCORN

A report on an outbreak of listeria in 2018 has been published which highlights the care needed in handling frozen sweetcorn https:// www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0168160520304888. The key thing to remember is the product is not normally sold as ready to eat in its frozen state (ie. it should be cooked). Some food businesses choose to use frozen product rather than tinned to get a “fresher” taste but this compromises the safety of the finished product where there is no heat process prior to freezing.

SUPPORT IN WALES

The Welsh government has revealed further details of the £200 million package of support for non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism businesses that continue to be impacted by the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. The latest funding is linked to the non-domestic rates system and will operate as a top up to the Restrictions Business Fund which was put in place in early December.

A further £30 million is also being made available through the discretionary fund to provide up to £2,000 grants for businesses not on the non-domestic rates system.

The Restrictions Business Fund Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) and Discretionary based grants for nonessential retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism (NERHLT) sectors have been extended to provide a single top up payment to cover the period between 25 January and end of March 2021 for businesses affected by national restrictions.

Businesses eligible for the Extended Restrictions Business Fund will receive top ups depending on their rateable value.

SCOTLAND EXTENDS RATES RELIEF

In its budget for 2021/22 the Scottish government has confirmed the extension of the 100% business rates relief for foodservice businesses for three months to cover the months of April to June. The basic poundage rate used to calculate business rates bills for 2021/22 will also be reduced by 0.8 pence to 49p in the pound.

BSA/CAFÉ Member Meeting Programme

UPDATE FROM CAMPDEN BRI 1400-1600, Thursday 4 March 2021

1. Update on Listeria – Roy Betts 2. New guidelines on cleaning and disinfection of factories – Phil

Voysey 3. SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) environmental testing and prevention – Martin D’Agostino 4. Safety of non-chilled food delivery of chilled/frozen items – Linda Everis

How to join

The above, and future, webinars are free for members to attend. Links will be sent to members in advance of the meeting but if you need a link to join please email jim@sandwich.org.uk