New mandatory FSA Guidelines Regarding Vacuum Packing Machines | The Tool Shed

New mandatory FSA Guidelines Regarding Vacuum Packing Machines

Following the recent release of new guidelines by the Food Standard Agency (FSA) about the correct use of vacuum packing machines, Sous Vide Tools are keen to offer their support to restaurants and kitchens during these changing times. The new guidelines have been raised in an attempt to try and keep the level of E-coli during any cooking process to an absolute minimum, as it is considered to be one of the most dangerous types of bacterium with the ability to live and breed in several of the harshest environments.

According to the FSA, if E-coli is consumed in the smallest of doses, it can cause serious damage to the human body and in the most serious of cases, result in death. It is therefore essential for commercial and professional kitchens to ensure that they have the highest standard of hygiene at all times and one of the most effective ways to ensure this is through controlling the cross contamination of bacteria between raw and ready to eat foods.

As stated at the beginning of the letter, the implementation of these guidelines concerns primarily the use of vacuum packing machines. It is now strongly recommended for all who work in kitchens to have the ability to differentiate between raw and ready to eat foods, know how to avoid cross contamination of these foods and how dangerous it would be should these two food types come into contact. There are two options available for catering businesses to advance with these new guidelines – the first is to be able to continue to use a single machine but there are strict rules and conditions in doing so. The second and more viable option is to have 2 vacuum packing machines – one for raw produce and one for ready to eat foods.

Sous Vide Tools have a wide variety of chamber vacuum packing machines readily available that will suit all catering needs from a gastro pub to a large professional kitchen. We have the best-selling, award winning Polyscience 300 Chamber Vacuum Packing Machine, whose maintenance free design allows it to provide professional level features at a home cook’s price. If you’re looking for something more industrial we can offer you the choice of the VacMaster VP215, which boasts superb engineering that is proven through the performance and is efficient, reliable and comes at a very attractive price making it essential to any culinary operation, or the Foodtek Cucina 400, which flaunts one of the largest chambers within the market of table top chamber vacuum packing machines and thanks to its extraordinary design, has a smaller than expected dimension whilst providing the very best quality and performance every time.

Whatever your Sous Vide needs, here at Sous Vide Tools we are confident that we can help. We speak from experience when we say that the compliance of these guidelines are being strongly monitored, with the FSA being reported to have stripped hygiene ratings of five stars down to two stars. Our team of advisors are only too happy to help and point you in the right direction, whatever your catering needs may be – so please drop us a line on 01524 770060 or send us an email to [email protected].

We look forward to hearing from you.

Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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