When using this guide to Growing and following the classroom activities for ‘Get Growing’, ‘Get Cooking’ and ‘Get Inspired’ always follow the Health and Safety policy for your school and carry out a risk assessment, particularly when using any tools for gardening, experiments and cooking.

Risk Assessment

You can identify or eliminate hazards by asking a series of questions, for example:

• What can go wrong here? (Hazard)
• What can I do about it? (Control/Critical limits)
• How can I check? (Monitoring and Verification)
• What if it is not right? (Corrective action)

The main sources of food contamination are:

• biological: raw meat and poor hygiene
• physical: foreign bodies; and
• chemical: risk from cleaning or processing chemicals.

You can use general health and safety rules for cooking in classrooms to set a good example and establish routines to promote good habits in pupils.

These rules include:

• storing coats and bags away from the food preparation area;
• making sure pupils have clean protective clothing and suitable footwear;
• providing hand washing facilities and ensuring pupils wash their hands before touching food;
• ensuring work surfaces are cleaned properly at the beginning and end of practical activities;
• making suitable storage facilities available, such as refrigerator space for storing ingredients and a chilled/cold room for storing cooked food;
• checking that food preparation equipment is clean and in good working order;
• ensuring there are sufficient waste disposal bins and recycling points;
• ensuring bins and recycling areas are emptied and cleaned frequently; and
• ensuring that school policy is implemented in the event of an accident.