Cooking meat for a community meal

Church halls, sports clubs and charities often cook for a crowd. Cooking meat for a hall full of people takes more planning than dinner at home. Food at a charity or community event has to be safe to eat, whether it is sold or given away.

Does the group need to register?

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says a group that provides food to its community may need to register as a food business, even if the food is free. Registration is due 28 days before the group starts providing food.

Where the food activity is very limited and infrequent, the council may decide that registration is not needed. The FSA says the food should still be safe to eat. The council's food safety team can say which applies.

Volunteers do not need a food hygiene certificate to make food for a charity event, the FSA says. They do need to handle food safely.

Allergens

Allergen law applies to registered food businesses. A registered group serving a meal that is not prepacked must give information on any of the 14 allergens in it. That can be in writing, or by word of mouth with a sign telling people who to ask.

A group that does not need to register is not legally required to give allergen information. The FSA still encourages it. For food made at home, its guidance suggests keeping a note of the recipe or the ingredients list.

Cooking the meat through

The FSA's standard advice is to cook food until its core reaches 70°C for 2 minutes. To check, put a clean probe in so that its tip sits in the centre of the food, or in the thickest part.

Chicken, pork, burgers, kebabs and sausages should not be served pink or rare, the FSA says. For a barbecue, it suggests cooking chicken and pork in the oven first and finishing them on the grill. When a lot of people are coming, that can also speed up serving.

For a large dish or batch, the FSA's pack for caterers says to check the temperature in several places.

Cooling and keeping

The same pack advises against cooking large quantities in advance unless you need to, because a large amount of food is harder to cool quickly. Cooked food that will not be served straight away should be chilled as quickly as possible and then put in the fridge.

Smaller portions cool faster. So do joints of meat cut in half, and covered pans stood in cold water.

The FSA lists cooked sliced meats among the foods that need extra care. Chilled food on a buffet should be out of the fridge for no more than four hours, and in very hot weather it should be used within 2 hours.

Buying the meat

Food cannot be supplied in any circumstances once its use-by date has passed, the FSA says.

To find a meat supplier, see meatsuppliers.uk.

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