CIEH Level 4 Awards in Food Safety - Assignments
Assignment about what? Level 4? Whats that? What happened to levels 1,2 and 3? :P
The way I approached it was to audit and then compare my findings with the legislation and guidance and then come up with recommendations for improvement. I got some very good marks for them but looking back now at how I approached it, I'm quite critical of myself because I did some excellent project work, identified some major gaps in what was happening but never managed to resolve them. The reason was I didn't manage to engage production management in the fact that this was an opportunity for them.
I suppose what I'm saying is to be a really good learning experience into technical management, it's all very well identifying what's wrong and what should be done to put it right but getting someone to do that is hard. If I did the project work again now, I'd make sure I did several things to engage the operations team:
The audit should be accompanied (if the manager is too busy, get a deputy.)
Get the auditee to come up with some solutions because then they're bought into the process.
Get a firm timescale commitment at the time of audit to resolve the issues.
I'd then approach the assignment focussing on management commitment and how you tried to achieve it and then show at least one example on where an issue had been resolved.
I don't know if that makes sense, just from years of experience now, I know that would knock the socks off an examiner because everyone knows management commitment is like getting blood out of a stone. Get real (not faked just for BRC's benefit) commitment out of an operations person and you'll go far...
Hello!
Assignment about what? Level 4? Whats that? What happened to levels 1,2 and 3? :P
Its level 4 food hygiene what was known as advanced
That is a brilliant resource Simon. I'd definitely have a look at this Kel; on the right hand side are all of the assignment marking sheets which your trainer will use. That's an excellent guide for what the trianer will be expecting.
Looking through, it looks like you still have to submit two assignments. Depending on where you work, the Food Safety Management Procedures looks meaty to me, cleaning and disinfection could be useful because there are so many places to collect info, e.g. audit of the process, procedures, micro historical data, training records, chemical concentration checks, talking to staff etc. I did the personal hygiene one and again, it's a meaty subject with loads to look at. I also did pest control because I knew the site I was working on at the time had pest control problems. (I concluded they were not fulfilling their legal obligations in the end which got me 99% and an angry Operations Manager!)
I would say if you work in high risk or high care your choices are very wide because so many of those topics will impact on your process. If you work in ambient food and a simple process, I'd go towards things like personal hygiene / procedures / cleaning or pest control because they are the topics which impact on every industry and also are multi-faceted. I would steer clear of chemical contamination unless there is a major risk in your industry because you can cover a lot of that topic within cleaning and you risk running out of things to say.
Do you know which ones you want to do? If so, post them on here and I'll brain storm some ideas for you on where to start if you like?
That is a brilliant resource Simon. I'd definitely have a look at this Kel; on the right hand side are all of the assignment marking sheets which your trainer will use. That's an excellent guide for what the trianer will be expecting.
Looking through, it looks like you still have to submit two assignments. Depending on where you work, the Food Safety Management Procedures looks meaty to me, cleaning and disinfection could be useful because there are so many places to collect info, e.g. audit of the process, procedures, micro historical data, training records, chemical concentration checks, talking to staff etc. I did the personal hygiene one and again, it's a meaty subject with loads to look at. I also did pest control because I knew the site I was working on at the time had pest control problems. (I concluded they were not fulfilling their legal obligations in the end which got me 99% and an angry Operations Manager!)
I would say if you work in high risk or high care your choices are very wide because so many of those topics will impact on your process. If you work in ambient food and a simple process, I'd go towards things like personal hygiene / procedures / cleaning or pest control because they are the topics which impact on every industry and also are multi-faceted. I would steer clear of chemical contamination unless there is a major risk in your industry because you can cover a lot of that topic within cleaning and you risk running out of things to say.
Do you know which ones you want to do? If so, post them on here and I'll brain storm some ideas for you on where to start if you like?
Hi there, first of all thank you to everyone for replying to my post. The first assignment is the HACCP this one is compulsary, the next will be personal hygiene. I am a school chef with about 10 yrs of HACCP and COSHH training behind me, the last time I wrote an assignment was for my English Literature exam at high school!!!!!
Sorry, I didn't see Assignment A was compulsary (d'oh!) I would say Assignment A goes beyond the HACCP plan as it will also encompass all of your prerequisites.
Ok, looking at how it will be marked, a key part is about making sure you know what the law is and current codes of practice. I think to cover this off, I'd reference legislation and codes of practice throughout the whole assignment but also I'd do an introduction on food safety legislation, why it was brought in, some key facts and also what organisations have done to help companies comply with the legislation. Some good resources for this are on the food standard agency website. A key thing I think you need to talk about is the "safer food better business" scheme.
http://www.food.gov....fo/foodhygknow/
http://www.food.gov....id/fhlguidance/
http://www.food.gov....b/sfbbcaterers/
You could look at any standards that your canteen is accredited against, e.g. ISO22000, BRC catering standard etc. You could also contact your EHO to ask them for advice.
Also don't forget any documentation from your company or from organisations you belong to.
For legislation, original copies are on the OPSI website although be warned, it's not always the easiest site to find the legislation you need. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/
Quick tip here, when writing an assignment like this, you can put in "Endnotes" on Microsoft Word (go to Insert> Reference> Footnote> which opens a window. It's best to chose "Endnote" as that will put all the references at the end of the whole document. Just because I'm a pedant, I then change the number sequence to 1,2,3 as for some reason Endnotes come up as roman numberals automatically. The good thing about this is it then inserts a number where you asked it to, then you fill in the details at the end about the reference. Then the clever thing is if you put another reference in before it, the numbers automatically update. Trust me, I wrote a thesis and this will save you hours!)
That might give you a starting point. I hope that's helpful, then you might be able to move onto sections 2 and 3?
I know you have had advice from other members but I will be happy to offer support
I and my colleagues teach Level 4 Food Safety (amongst other things) and have been doing for over 15 years.
I am surprised your tutor did not
A) Give you the link to the CIEH website that Simon provided
B) Give you the assignment criteria and help you to choose the topic to accompany your compulsory HACCP assignement
C) Show you some past assignements or at least give you a handout on assignment writing
I'm a bit stuck for time right at the moment but let me know how you need to approach this ie do you have a deadline, do you have any other projects eg if you had to design a cleaning schedule then Cleaning & Disinfection would be a good choice and you would kill 2 birds with one stone
I look forward to hearing from you and will help shoudl you wish
S
Thank you for replying to my shout for help. My tutor is great but he is a very busy man and has a big class to deal with so I would rather seek help from elsewhere to be honest. I have drafted my first assignment and sent it in fo him to give feedback on so am just waiting for that one to come back before i start my next one. I thought it was on personal hygien but its noit its physical contamination. My only problem is I have not had any dealings or experience of any complaints of physical contamination so I am really stuck on this one. I have been told to make one up but even then I am limited with information of corrective actions and verifications cause its only make believe. Real hea scratcher this time.
Not sure what limitations are applied to yr choices so sorry if following out of context. Actually the real-life possibilities are unfortunately boundless, hairs in hamburgers, bones in (declared) boneless fish, metal in everything, glass in sensitive foods. depends how serious you want to choose but the basic correctives will be similar. If you want some typical follow ups for a production environment, the chapters 20,21 on metal / glass in this link will illustrate -
http://seafoodhaccp....anuals_pdf.html
Rgds / Charles.C
Kelly
Are you allowed to imagine that you live in Australia ? -
http://queenslandcon...omba-pizza.html
Rgds / Charles.C
PS - I take it you hv never worked in a food factory or behind a retail take-away counter. Such people usually encounter enough case scenarios of this type to fill a book !
added - just noticed you are an experienced school chef - that must have involved some (physical) supplier disasters by now !
Dear kelly,
Are you allowed to imagine that you live in Australia ? -
http://queenslandcon...omba-pizza.html
Rgds / Charles.C
PS - I take it you hv never worked in a food factory or behind a retail take-away counter. Such people usually encounter enough case scenarios of this type to fill a book !
added - just noticed you are an experienced school chef - that must have involved some (physical) supplier disasters by now !
Only ever experienced microbiological contamination twice!!!!!!! no physical
thanks for the link by the way
Hi there steve,
Thank you for replying to my shout for help. My tutor is great but he is a very busy man and has a big class to deal with so I would rather seek help from elsewhere to be honest. I have drafted my first assignment and sent it in fo him to give feedback on so am just waiting for that one to come back before i start my next one. I thought it was on personal hygien but its noit its physical contamination. My only problem is I have not had any dealings or experience of any complaints of physical contamination so I am really stuck on this one. I have been told to make one up but even then I am limited with information of corrective actions and verifications cause its only make believe. Real hea scratcher this time.
Kel
Sorry for the delay I'm afraid I don't visit the forum every day
I will refrain from any judgement of your tutor and his organisation
Assignment A is compulsory all the others are not, if you want to do personal hygiene instead of physical contamination (which is not a big issue in catering it's more of a manufacturing problem) then you can - the CIEH rules do not specify that tutors have to set (or indeed have the right to set) assignments. It is wholly inapproriate to set an assignment for a topic which is not relevant to a delegate.
Follow this link to download the criteria for Personal Hygiene
http://www.cieh.org/...ty/4FNCCARE.pdf
I hope that this helps
If you need further help please don't hesitate to ask
Regards
Steve
what do you need help with?
Completing my CEIH practical log book
Hi Holmsey,
You probably need to supply some specific details as to what information you are seeking.