Food Hygiene Awareness

Food hygiene awareness training delivered at your workplace, live online, or via eLearning. Half a day. The practical food safety knowledge, legal grounding, and everyday habits every food handler needs, whatever setting they work in.

Course Overview

Food hygiene is not just a kitchen responsibility. Anyone who prepares a drink, serves a snack, assists someone at mealtimes, or works in a space where food is handled is a food handler in the eyes of the law. A member of staff in a garden centre café who makes a coffee is handling food. A care worker who pours a glass of juice or helps a resident with their meal is handling food. The legal obligations that apply to food business operators extend to every member of staff whose role brings them into contact with food, not just those working in a professional kitchen.

That distinction is not always understood, and the gap between what staff think applies to them and what actually does is where food safety risk lives. This course closes that gap. It covers the 4Cs of food hygiene, personal hygiene, temperature control, safe storage, cleaning, and allergen awareness, and it is built around the real settings your team actually works in.

Allergen awareness is covered in practical detail. Under Natasha’s Law (the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2021), foods prepacked for direct sale must carry full ingredient and allergen labelling. A team that cannot accurately communicate allergen information to a customer is not just failing a best practice standard. They are creating a risk that can be fatal. The course reflects the Food Safety Act 1990, Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs as retained in UK law, the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, Natasha’s Law, and current Food Standards Agency guidance, including the Safer Food Better Business toolkit.

Course Details

  • Duration: Half day (3 hours), tailored to your setting and team
  • Delivery: Face-to-face in-house, live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or eLearning
  • Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Food Hygiene Awareness
  • Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
  • Validity: No formal expiry. A refresher is recommended every 2 years, or sooner following changes in role, significant changes to procedures, or where food safety concerns are identified.
  • Group size: Maximum 15 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is right for any member of staff whose role involves contact with food, in any setting.

  • Care staff supporting individuals at mealtimes, preparing drinks, or assisting with snacks
  • Support workers and personal assistants in domiciliary, residential, and supported living settings
  • Nursery, school, and early years staff involved in food preparation or meal service
  • Hospitality and café teams, including counter staff who handle drinks and packaged food
  • Community and voluntary sector staff involved in food provision
  • Domestic and cleaning staff working in food preparation or service areas
  • New starters who need a food hygiene foundation before beginning their role
  • Any team member needing a refresher on current food safety requirements

This course sits below Level 2 Food Safety and is designed for all food handlers, not only those in formal food preparation roles. For staff in supervisory positions or professional kitchen roles, our Food Hygiene Level 2 qualification may be more appropriate. Not sure which is right for your team? Get in touch and we’ll help you work it out before you commit.

The Legal Requirement

Under Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 as retained in UK law and the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, food business operators must ensure that food handlers are supervised, instructed, and trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity. This obligation applies to every food business in England, regardless of size or sector. A care home kitchen, a school canteen, and a community lunch club are all food businesses for the purposes of food safety law.

Allergens are one of the most significant and commonly mismanaged food safety risks in the UK. There are 14 major allergens listed under UK food law, and exposure to even a trace amount can cause anaphylaxis and death in people with severe allergies. Natasha’s Law, which came into force on 1 October 2021, introduced mandatory full ingredient and allergen labelling for all food prepacked for direct sale. A member of staff who does not know which allergens are present in the food they are serving is a risk to the people they serve.

In care, education, and community settings, the people receiving food are often older adults, children, or individuals with existing health conditions whose vulnerability to foodborne illness or allergen exposure is significantly higher. The Food Standards Agency’s Safer Food Better Business toolkit provides a practical framework for managing food safety in smaller food businesses. This course supports staff understanding of the principles behind it.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects the Food Safety Act 1990, Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, Natasha’s Law, and current Food Standards Agency guidance throughout. Topics covered include:

  • Introduction to food hygiene and food safety law: who it applies to and what it requires
  • What counts as food handling: why the legal obligations extend well beyond the professional kitchen
  • Food contamination: biological, chemical, physical, and allergenic hazards
  • The 4Cs of food hygiene: cleaning, cooking, chilling, and cross-contamination
  • Personal hygiene for food handlers: handwashing, sickness reporting, and fitness for work
  • Temperature control: safe cooking temperatures, chilling requirements, and the temperature danger zone
  • Safe storage and stock rotation: separation of raw and ready-to-eat foods, and correct use of date labels
  • Cleaning and disinfection: the difference between the two and why both matter
  • Allergen awareness: Natasha’s Law, the 14 major allergens, and accurate allergen communication requirements. If a customer or individual you support has a severe allergy and experiences anaphylaxis, call 999 immediately
  • Safer Food Better Business: the FSA toolkit and the principles behind HACCP-based food safety
  • Food safety culture: staff responsibilities, reporting concerns, and escalating food safety issues

Every course is also built to include your food handling procedures, cleaning arrangements, and allergen communication approach as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

This course is available face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue, live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or via eLearning for organisations requiring flexible, self-paced completion. For face-to-face delivery, content is prepared around your food handling environment and the specific settings your staff work in.

Groups are capped at 15 to ensure every learner gets sufficient time for discussion. Every session is built around your meal service arrangements, your allergen communication approach, your cleaning schedules, and the specific food safety responsibilities most relevant to your team. We can also adapt for settings where food handling experience and confidence vary significantly across the group.

Delivery includes:

  • Real-world examples drawn from care, hospitality, education, and community settings, including situations where food safety risk is most commonly missed
  • Practical discussion of allergen communication requirements and what good practice looks like in your specific setting
  • Scenario-based learning covering the decisions food handlers face in everyday practice
  • Coverage of your food handling procedures, cleaning arrangements, and allergen communication approach

Food Hygiene Awareness or Food Hygiene Level 2?

Both courses address food safety knowledge and legal obligations. The right choice depends on the role and the level of food handling responsibility.

Food Hygiene Awareness (this course)   is right for all staff whose role brings them into contact with food in any setting: care workers assisting at mealtimes, café counter staff, school meal service teams, and community volunteers. It covers the 4Cs, allergen awareness, personal hygiene, and the legal framework at an awareness level appropriate to all food handlers.

Food Hygiene Level 2   is right for staff in formal food preparation roles, supervisory positions, or where a regulated qualification is required by the food business or its environmental health inspector. It provides a deeper and more formally assessed grounding in food safety principles and is the standard qualification for professional food handlers.

We don’t make that determination for employers; the responsibility sits with you. But we do provide guidance throughout the enquiry process.

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Food Hygiene Awareness.

A refresher is recommended every 2 years, or sooner if staff change roles, if food safety procedures change significantly, if allergen information is updated, or if food safety concerns are identified through audit, inspection, or incident review. The Food Standards Agency recommends that food business operators review training needs regularly to ensure staff knowledge remains current. Our Food Hygiene Level 2 is the natural progression for staff moving into food preparation or supervisory roles.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

  • 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
  • All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
  • We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 15 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

Is food hygiene training a legal requirement?

Yes, in practice. Under Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 as retained in UK law and the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, food business operators must ensure that food handlers receive supervision, instruction, and training in food hygiene commensurate with their work activity. The law does not specify that every food handler must hold a particular certificate, but it does require that training is appropriate to the role and the risk. A food business that cannot demonstrate its staff have received appropriate food hygiene training is non-compliant.

Who counts as a food handler?

Anyone whose role involves contact with food in any form. That includes care workers who assist with meals or prepare drinks, café staff who handle food or make hot drinks, school staff involved in meal service, and domestic staff working in food preparation areas. The legal obligations under Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 apply to the food business operator and extend to every member of staff in a food handling role, not only those working in a professional kitchen. Most organisations have more food handlers than they initially realise.

What is Natasha’s Law, and how does it affect my organisation?

Natasha’s Law, which came into force on 1 October 2021, requires that all food prepacked for direct sale, meaning food packaged on the premises where it is sold, carries full ingredient and allergen labelling. This applies to sandwiches, baked goods, salads, and any other food prepared and packaged at the point of sale. Staff need to understand what this means for their setting and how to communicate allergen information accurately. This course covers Natasha’s Law and allergen communication requirements in practical detail.

What are the 14 major allergens under UK food law?

The 14 major allergens are: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts. Food businesses must be able to identify which of these are present in their food and communicate that information clearly and accurately. A customer with a severe allergy who is given inaccurate information can suffer anaphylaxis. If someone has an anaphylactic reaction, call 999 immediately. We deliver this training across Greater Manchester, the wider North West, and nationally.

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Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

This course is reviewed against updates from the Food Standards Agency, the Care Quality Commission, and current UK food safety legislation including the Food Safety Act 1990, Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 as retained in UK law, the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, and the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2021 (Natasha’s Law).

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This page is for general guidance only and reflects current UK food safety legislation and Food Standards Agency guidance at the date of review. It does not constitute legal or regulatory advice. Food Hygiene Awareness Training is a CPD-accredited awareness course and does not replace the Level 2 Food Safety qualification for staff in formal food preparation or supervisory roles. Completion of this course does not independently satisfy all food safety training obligations where a higher level of training is required. Food business operators remain responsible for ensuring their food safety management systems, staff training, allergen communication, and HACCP-based procedures comply with all applicable legislation and Food Standards Agency guidance.

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