Royal Russell School
Coombe Lane
Croydon
Greater London
CR9 5BX
Client ID Number: AA/00000374
The Royal Russell School Catering Department have been a full member of The Allergen Accreditation Scheme since December 2020. The following 2 years the department had 2 further audit reviews which were successful. On 6th October 2023 Jacqui McPeake who is the Lead Senior Allergen Advisor at Allergen Accreditation visited the department to undertake a physical audit of the site.
Jacqui is very familiar with the school and has provided support and training since 2020. This year a new Catering & Hospitality Manager Ed Broderick has joined the team following the retirement of his predecessor. Chloe Gibbs has also joined the team as the Assistant Catering & Hospitality Manager.
Ed started his new role on 1st June 2023, this enabled him to work with Andrew, the previous manager to ensure that he received a good handover period to settle into the role. Ed told me that the education sector is a new area for him and not knowing what to expect and he has been very pleasantly surprised. A previous background working in catering for large construction sites and a stint at McLaren this is a completely new area for him. The Royal Russell School catering department provides a very high standard of food, and the menu range ensures a wide choice for the pupils and staff.
There are currently 1,250 pupils in the school and 1.600 meals are prepared every day. The pupils who are boarding at the school receive 3 meals a day 7 days a week. The department cater for a wide range of dietary requests and food allergies have increased in recent years. There are about 20% of children in the Junior School who have allergies and intolerances and the list of allergies outside the “Top 14” continues to increase. There has been an increase in children suffering with pea protein allergy and also this has caused issues with suppliers as many products now contain pea protein.
The team use Datecode Genie which has helped them to label products and the system enables each child to have a named label with relevant allergies and intolerances listed. Pupils from the Junior School wear lanyards and use blue trays so they can be easily identified during lunch service. If any meals are pre-prepared for those pupils with a severe allergy, they are placed in a container with a red lid and a label.
There is a two-step checking process to ensure the correct meal is served to the relevant pupil. The Near Miss procedures work well as the team are very observant and can spot an issue that doesn’t look right. If there is such an incident, it is logged, reviewed and procedures updated if necessary.
Jacqui has trained the team and regularly delivers Allergen Awareness Refresher training. The team are fully aware of their responsibilities. If there is any feedback following audits, they always instigate changes almost immediately. Several members of the team have commented that “they always enjoy the Allergen Training” -so that can only be a good thing!
Well done to Jacqui and Ed as well as all the team at Royal Russell!
