Food, Beverage & Hospitality · Employer knowledge

Health, safety & risk

Manage the risks created by the work itself — from hot surfaces and sharp equipment to slips, manual handling, chemicals and work pressures — separately from your food-safety controls.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 places a primary duty on a PCBU to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers it engages or causes to be engaged, and workers whose activities it influences or directs, while they are carrying out work. The duty includes providing and maintaining a work environment without risks to health and safety, safe plant and structures, safe systems of work, and necessary information, training, instruction or supervision.

Food safety and workplace health and safety can overlap, but they are not the same system. A restaurant may be controlling food contamination well while still needing to manage worker risks such as burns, cuts, slips, hazardous substances, manual handling or unsafe equipment.

What should a manager have in place?

Start with the work people actually perform and the conditions in which they perform it. WorkSafe's risk-management approach is to eliminate risks so far as is reasonably practicable and, where elimination is not reasonably practicable, minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable.

Work risks & controlsIdentify risks arising from kitchens, bars, service areas, cleaning, storage, deliveries and other work. Put effective controls in place and review them when circumstances change.

Plant, equipment & substancesManage risks from knives, slicers, cooking equipment, hot oil, machinery, cleaning chemicals and other plant or substances relevant to the workplace.

Worker preparationProvide the information, training, instruction or supervision needed for people to work safely, in a form they can understand.

Incidents & emergenciesHave workable arrangements for foreseeable emergencies and a clear process for reporting, responding to and learning from incidents and unsafe conditions.

Manager check

Have we identified the health and safety risks created by the actual work in each part of our operation?
Are important controls working in practice, rather than existing only in a checklist or procedure?
Are workers given suitable information, training, instruction or supervision for the risks and equipment they encounter?
Are cleaning chemicals, plant and equipment used and managed safely?
Do workers know how to report incidents, hazards or unsafe conditions and what to do in an emergency?
Do we review controls when equipment, menus, layout, staffing, work methods or other relevant conditions change?

WorkSafe risk management guidance →HSWA primary duty →Back to Food, Beverage & Hospitality Hub

NZQC provides practical educational information. It is not legal advice and does not certify that a provider is compliant. Check the official source and the requirements that apply to your service, contracts and scope.