Over the weekend I went to a local café and ordered a chicken panini, after ordering I was told that they could not toast my panini because they were not allowed to reheat chicken due to health and safety. My word, I thought, you couldn’t make it up!

Except you could or rather they could; on checking the Food Standard Agencies regulations I can find nothing that states cafes are not allowed to reheat cooked chicken for any reason. (I have emailed to ask but they are yet to get back to me at time of posting) In fact there are guidelines that suggest if you are to reheat chicken that you should make sure it is hot enough to ’discourage the growth of bacteria’ – yummy! 

You hear these sorts of stories all the time and if I hadn’t bothered to check then I might walk away tutting thinking this was yet another example of the nanny state oppressing my right to have hot chicken.

I don’t want to single this café, or their misinformed staff, out as acting foolishly, they are only doing what they think is right. But I do wonder how this misinformation spreads, and how many other people harbour health and safety protocols or fears that simply aren’t true? How much of this nanny state, that the government is currently reviewing, is actually down to the general publics’ irrational inflation of health and safety regulations rather than genuine guidance? We all know Cameron likes to touch the tabloids’ hot spots and maybe we should have seen this coming. But rather than towing the old line that there is too much red tape perhaps this government review should ask how these health and safety fears are sown. Maybe just maybe, if our media wasn’t peppered with stories of ‘elf and safety’ gone mad, then we all might be a little less sensitive when it comes to this stuff. But they just report don’t they? Not make shit up.

It is very easy to blame the government for being over protective but in my experience most actual health and safety guidelines seem quite reasonable when you think about it and are there because accidents happen and guidelines are introduced to try and prevent them happening again. Sometimes it maybe just common sense, but what is common sense to you might not be to everyone else; a quick read through some Darwin Awards will confirm that.

Yes there are some people that take health and safety regulations too far and it can seem ridiculous when they do. At this point I am reminded of an exchange I had with the cleaner in my first year at University in the Halls of Residence during a room inspection.

Your bin needs emptying

It isn’t full yet

You still have to empty it

Why?

Health and safety

What do you mean health and safety?

It’s a fire hazard How is it a fire hazard?

It is a half full bin, I don’t smoke and even if I did we aren’t allowed to in out rooms. The bin isn’t even near a plug socket in case you thought some freak spark might set it alight.

There might be food in there, that’s dangerous if you leave it.

There isn’t any food in there. I eat in the canteen like all the other students in halls.

Its still health and safety.

But I don’t understand what is dangerous about a half full bin.

You still have to empty it every day.

Do you empty your bin at home every day?

(At this point she stuttered for a bit said yes and then walked off.)

In hindsight the cleaner probably didn’t deserve some presumptuous eighteen year old pointing out the flaws in her argument. She was just following what she thought the regulations were and they may well have been the regulations, I don’t know. Either way it was a stupid rule and I enjoyed a good debate at the time never mind who it was with.

That exchange happened 10 years ago, these health and safety fears have been part of our everyday life for years and no matter how much the government review it I don’t think that will change. I suspect the media will keep saying ‘elf and safety has gone mad and people will continue to invent regulations so we end up in a kind of perpetual motion health and safety regulation making machine. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go empty the bin.

Update

The Food Standards Agency got back to me, this is what they said;

I am not aware of any restrictions on reheating chicken, as long as it is reheated properly and served straightaway. I have attached a link to the guidance we provide to businesses which you may find useful for your article:
 
http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/regulation/hygleg/hyglegresources/sfbb/sfbbcaterers/
 
I hope this is helpful.