After visiting the Christmas markets this week, I decided to have a look at the procedures for catering at an outdoor event of this scale.
Goldblatt (2002) claims that ‘Food beverage, and celebration are inextricably connected. From social lifestyle events to giant hallmark events such as the Olympic Games or Super Bowl, the relationship between food and frivolity has been a close one’. This highlights the importance of catering for such an event to ensure that it is a success.
The food hygiene regulations (2006), state that all proprietors of food businesses must put in place food safety management procedures based on the principles of HACCP – Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. HACCP is a way of managing food safety. It is based on putting in place procedures to control hazards such as identifying the “critical control points” – these are the areas you need to focus on to prevent hazards or reduce them to an acceptable level. These areas include cross contamination, cleaning and cooking. This regulation is imperative as it makes sure that the consumer is protected, and reduces the risk of the caterer being fined or even imprisoned if something goes wrong.
There are also many considerations when deciding to hire external caterers for an outdoor event. The event organiser needs to consider the quality and variety of food available, this is especially important for the Manchester Christmas markets as this is one of its main selling points. The website states that customers can ‘treat yourself to anything from Dutch mini pancakes, to Hungarian goulash to Spanish paella to French profiteroles’.
Other considerations include the reputation of caterers, how many stalls they have room for, and where to put which caterer as this may affect trade and cost of the space.
However if all of these procedures are followed correctly, the event will run smoothly and the Christmas markets should be running for a long time to come!
References:
http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK/manchester-christmas-market.html (accessed on 21/11/2012)
http://www.cieh.org/uploadedFiles/Core/Policy/Publications_and_information_services/Policy_publications/Publications/CIEH_Outdoor_Mobile_Catering_Guidance_Final_Consultation.pdf (accessed on 22/11/2012)
Goldblatt 2002, Special Events – Twenty first century global event management, 3rd Ed, Pg 153
Events Operations in Context 