Food Hygiene training that gets your team CQC-ready
- CQC-aligned, mapped to the Care Certificate framework
- Completed in the hub in over 60 languages
- A certificate for every staff member, for your CQC evidence
- A wrong answer triggers a follow-up lesson, so gaps are closed
From £25.99 per staff member, one-off. No subscription needed.
Specialists in the technology behind it all
The same AI and technology behind the world's best products powers CareStream, so your team's food hygiene training stays accurate, always up to date with the latest guidance, and is delivered in over 60 languages.
Personal Hygiene When Handling Food
Before touching any food, you must wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. This removes harmful bacteria that can cause illness. Always wash hands after using the toilet, touching your face or hair, handling waste, or touching raw foods. If you are unwell with sickness or diarrhoea, you must not handle food and should report to your manager immediately.
What is the minimum time you should wash your hands with soap and warm water before handling food?
The correct answer is “At least 20 seconds”. In the full module, a wrong answer triggers a short follow-up lesson and a fresh question, so the gap is always closed before completion.
That is how the training works. Give your whole team the full Food Hygiene module.
What This Training Covers
A clear, practical grounding in food hygiene.
This training covers how to keep food safe and prevent illness in a care setting. You will learn about storing, preparing and serving food safely, preventing contamination, and protecting residents with food allergies. These practices protect everyone's health and meet legal requirements.
Learning Outcomes
By the end, your staff will be able to:
What Your Team Will Learn
A closer look at the food hygiene module.
The module is built in short, practical sections. Each one teaches a part of the topic, then applies it to a real care scenario and checks understanding before moving on.
Personal Hygiene When Handling Food
Before touching any food, you must wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. This removes harmful bacteria that can cause illness. Always wash hands after using the toilet, touching your face or hair, handling waste, or touching raw foods. If you are unwell with sickness or diarrhoea, you must not handle food and should report to your manager immediately.
Safe Food Storage and Temperature Control
Food must be stored at the correct temperature to prevent harmful bacteria growing. Cold foods must be kept at 5 degrees Celsius or below. Hot foods must be kept at 63 degrees Celsius or above. Raw and cooked foods must always be stored separately, with raw foods on lower shelves so they cannot drip onto ready to eat foods. All food must be covered and labelled with the date it was opened or prepared.
Understanding Food Allergies and the 14 Allergens
Care services must provide clear information about 14 specific allergens that can cause serious allergic reactions. These are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, soya, and sulphur dioxide. Even a tiny amount of an allergen can cause reactions ranging from itching to life threatening anaphylactic shock. Residents' food allergies should be recorded in their care plans, and allergen information should be provided on all menus.
Preventing Cross Contamination
Cross contamination happens when harmful bacteria or allergens spread from one food to another. This can make residents seriously ill. You must clean all utensils, chopping boards and surfaces thoroughly between uses, especially after preparing foods containing allergens. Always wash your hands between preparing different dishes. Store ingredients and prepared foods separately in closed, labelled containers. Never use the same utensil for different foods without washing it first.
Providing Allergen Information to Residents
Every resident has the right to know what is in their food so they can make safe choices. Menus should clearly show allergen information, with allergens highlighted in bold. This information should be provided in formats that residents can understand, including reading menus aloud to those who need support. For residents who lack capacity to understand or make safe choices, staff must help them choose safe foods according to their care plan. Never assume someone cannot understand; always try to explain their choices first.
Recognising and Reporting Food Safety Concerns
You must report any food safety concerns immediately to the cook or manager. This includes food that smells or looks wrong, food past its use by date, broken packaging, incorrect storage temperatures, or equipment that is not working properly. Also report if you see poor hygiene practices or if you become unwell with sickness or diarrhoea. Quick reporting prevents residents becoming ill. Never serve food you are unsure about; when in doubt, always ask.
Cleaning and Sanitising in Kitchen and Dining Areas
Cleaning as you go keeps the kitchen and dining areas safe between meals, not just at the end of a shift. Effective cleaning has two stages: first wash the surface with hot soapy water to lift grease and food debris, then apply sanitiser to kill the bacteria left behind. Sanitiser only works if it stays wet on the surface for the contact time printed on the label, often thirty seconds to five minutes, so never spray and wipe straight off. Use the colour-coded boards and cloths every time: red for raw meat, blue for raw fish, green for salad and fruit, yellow for cooked food. The dishwasher rinse must reach 82°C or above to sanitise crockery properly.
Food Safety Management: HACCP in Practice
HACCP sounds technical, but in a care setting it simply means knowing the points where food could become unsafe and checking them every single day. Cook food until the centre reaches 75°C, and probe it to prove it. Keep hot food at 63°C or above while it is being served. Cool leftovers within 90 minutes before they go into the fridge, and label everything with the date it was made or opened. Write your temperature checks in the kitchen records the same day, because if it is not written down, it did not happen. Under Natasha's Law, any food prepacked on site for later service must carry a full ingredient list with the 14 allergens emphasised.
Key Points Covered
The things your team must remember.
- Always wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds before handling food and between different tasks
- Store cold foods at 5 degrees Celsius or below and hot foods at 63 degrees Celsius or above; keep raw and cooked foods separate
- Care services must provide clear information about 14 specific allergens on all menus, and staff should help residents make safe food choices
- Prevent cross contamination by washing all utensils between uses, especially when preparing allergen free foods
- Report any food safety concerns immediately, including spoiled food, wrong temperatures, or if you are unwell
- Never serve food containing allergens to residents with allergies, even if they ask for it, and always check care plans
Who and how often
Food Hygiene is refreshed every three years, for the staff in your care setting whose roles require it.
CQC and standards
Supports your evidence against Safe, Reg 12 — Safe care and treatment, Reg 14 — Meeting nutritional and hydration needs.
How CareStream Delivers It
Not a slideshow once a year. Training that sticks.
CareStream delivers food hygiene training in the hub your team already uses, grounded in best practice and your own policies, so it fits your care setting and not a generic template.
Teach, then assess
Short teaching sections and a real care scenario, then an assessment that checks understanding.
In any language
Staff complete it in over 60 languages, while your records stay in English.
Learn and retry
A wrong answer triggers a short follow-up lesson and a fresh question, so the gap is closed.
Renewals handled
Automatic reminders at 90, 30 and 7 days, with a live compliance dashboard.
How your team gets trained
From your dashboard to your team, in the CareStream hub.
Training is delivered in the hub each staff member logs into. You allocate the modules, they complete them in their own language, and you get the completion records and certificates for your CQC evidence, with any gaps closed by automatic follow up training.
- 01
Buy and allocate
Assign Food Hygiene to each staff member in seconds. No course builder and no setup for each person.
- 02
They complete it in the hub
Staff work through the module on any device, in over 60 languages, teaching then checking understanding. A wrong answer sends a short follow up lesson.
- 03
You track it
See live completion status and a certificate for every person, ready as evidence for CQC.
Safeguarding Adults
Food Hygiene
Moving & Handling of People
Infection Prevention & Control
In every language
Any step, in their language, in one tap.
Care teams are diverse and training should not leave anyone behind. On any lesson or question, a staff member taps the language button and the whole step flips into the language they think in. They understand it properly, and your records stay in English.
- One tap flips any lesson or question into their language, instantly.
- Over 60 languages, with no setup and no separate versions to manage.
- Completions and certificates stay in English for your CQC evidence.
Try the language button in the preview, or see every language
Food Hygiene
Learning: what to read first
About 35 minThis training covers how to keep food safe and prevent illness in a care setting. You will learn about storing, preparing and serving food safely, preventing contamination, and protecting residents with food allergies. These practices protect everyone's health and meet legal requirements.
Built for real learning, not box ticking
Every CareStream course goes further than a lesson and a quiz. These features come as standard on every course, giving your staff a richer way to learn and giving you the evidence to prove it.
References and further reading
Every course is built on recognised UK guidance and cites its sources, from NICE and Skills for Care to the NHS and the legislation itself.
Key terms explained
A plain English glossary of the technical terms in each course. A simple way to support every learner, including staff with English as a second language.
Measured learning gain
A quick knowledge check before the lesson is compared with the final assessment, so every certificate comes with evidence of how much the course actually taught.
Reflective practice
After passing, staff record what they will do differently in their day to day work. Their reflection is saved to their training record and shown with their certificate.
A course summary to keep
A printable one page takeaway of the outcomes, key points and key terms. Perfect for staff files, supervision conversations and the staff room wall.
Observed competency checklist
A printable checklist for managers to confirm skills in practice, with a sign off section. It completes the picture beyond the knowledge assessment.
Wrong answers become lessons, not failures
Most e learning marks an answer wrong and moves on. CareStream does not. Every wrong answer triggers an automatic follow up loop that teaches the point again and rechecks it, so no knowledge gap is left behind.
Instant lesson and feedback
A wrong answer immediately opens a short lesson explaining the point, so the gap is closed there and then.
Targeted follow up question
A fresh question on the same point checks the lesson has landed. The loop repeats until it has.
Progress only when understood
Staff move on to the next module and their certificate once they genuinely know the answer, not just after one lucky guess.
Why choose CareStream?
Training built for the care sector, delivered the way busy teams actually learn.
Time to complete: ~48 min
FAQs
Frequently asked questions.
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Give your team food hygiene training that actually sticks.
See how CareStream delivers your mandatory training in the hub, in any language.