 Jenny Morris (left) and Sharon Smith (right) |
Environmental health volunteers undertook 700 monitoring visits and walked an average of 11km a day during the Olympic Games.
The volunteers, who came from commercial and local government backgrounds, graded food units red for deficient in critical food safety areas, amber for deficient in some area of food safety or green for meeting all key standards.
Initial figures show that more than 200 food units received a green grading.
The volunteers aimed to support contractors so they could focus on high risk activities such as ensuring temperature control is properly managed, that cross contamination does not occur, that cleaning is thorough and that personal hygiene is good.
Jenny Morris, environmental health team manager, said: ‘In addition to the general monitoring visits the team also undertook more focused visits on pest, drainage and waste management. Our visits did not find any evidence of pest infestations within the Olympic Park.’
She added that the team was also able to undertake a survey of effective cleaning practices using an ATP sampling kit.
‘This worked well demonstrating effective cleaning techniques and reinforcing good practices. We have had excellent feedback from the contractors who found our support helpful in finding solutions to the challenges posed by the large numbers of visitors and intensity of food delivery. We will be working with the contractors to learn from this experience and contribute to wider improvements in public health, ‘ she said.
Sharon Smith, team co-coordinator, added: ‘We were fortunate to be able to use this opportunity to support student training and the CIEH will be providing further workshops and support for students on our London 2012 volunteer programme as well as those taken up by the catering contractors such as Aramark and Global Infusion to maximise their practical experience in the Olympic Park.’
Ms Smith and Ms Morris are now preparing the team ready for the Paralympics which commences on 29 August 2012.