New catering standards with MLC 2006
Armies are suppose to “march on their stomachs” and it is undoubtedly true that a happy ship tends to be one who has a competent cook. But while regulators have mandated competencies and skills for most people aboard ship, it is only with the arrival of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 that we have a range of new catering standards for food and drinking water aboard ship, and specific requirements for quantity, quality, nutritional value and variety, along with strict rules for hygiene.
Most good operators fully recognise the value of good food, ensuring that people with the right skills are employed and that the stores and ingredients are of the best. But everyone can do with some help from time to time and the arrival of the MLC 2006 will ensure that catering issues are areas which will be subject to inspection.
The master’s inspection of the galley may have been a regular part of the weekly routine aboard well-run ships, but now becomes a far more formalised procedure. With attention being paid to hygiene, attire, record keeping and stock rotation, the inspections must be properly recorded with due attention to hazard analysis and critical control point principles. There is perhaps more to the inspection than might meet the eye and one part of the series is devoted to this area, which doubtless inspectors will home in on.
Read more in the BIMCO article Watchkeeper:What’s for Dinner?