A green stew joins on the Friday of a turnaround. By Saturday lunch she is plating canapés, running the buffet and handling the ice. Nobody has shown her the handwash sink, told her which board is which, or asked what she knows about allergens. If a guest is ill next week, the question you will be asked is not what she did wrong. It is what you did to make her competent.
Who needs what
| Role | Typical requirement |
|---|---|
| Anyone handling food, even briefly (deckhand on galley duty) | Induction before starting work, then Level 2 food safety |
| Stews, cooks, crew mess cooks | Level 2 food safety, plus task-specific training |
| Chef, chief stew, purser, head of department | Level 3 supervising food safety; HACCP training |
| Everyone | Allergen awareness; illness reporting; the vessel's FSMS |
Induction is not optional and cannot wait for a quiet week. It happens before the person touches food, and it takes fifteen minutes: handwashing, fitness-to-work reporting, the raw/RTE rule, colour coding, allergens, "if you are unsure, ask me".
Training vs competence
A certificate proves attendance. Competence is the ability to do the job correctly, consistently, under pressure and unsupervised. You establish it by watching, questioning and recording:
- Watch the person actually do the task — probe a chicken, cool a stock, answer an allergen question.
- Ask "why" — someone who knows the reason will adapt correctly when the situation changes; someone who has memorised a rule will not.
- Sign off competence per task and record it. This is direct due-diligence evidence.
- Set refresher intervals (commonly every three years for formal certification, more often for onboard briefings) and diarise them.
Coaching and correcting in the moment
Correction is a supervisory skill, and how you do it determines whether crew tell you the truth next time.
- Correct immediately, privately where possible, and against the standard, not the person. "That board is for raw — here is why" beats "you are being careless".
- Explain the hazard, not just the rule. Crew who understand Listeria do not need to be told to rotate the smoked salmon.
- Never punish honest reporting. The moment a stew fears telling you she dropped a plated canapé and served it anyway, your system is blind.
- Deal with repeat non-compliance formally: re-train, record, escalate. Ignoring it tells everyone else the rule is optional.
- Model it yourself. A supervisor who touches ready-to-eat food with bare hands has just deleted the rule for the whole department.
Supervision and monitoring in practice
- Be present at the high-risk moments: delivery, cooling, service, beach set-up. Not at 1500 when nothing is happening.
- Spot-check by observation, not by reading records — records tell you what was written, observation tells you what happens.
- Keep a short supervisory log: what you checked, what you found, what you did.
Onboard Notes
- Induct on day one, in fifteen minutes, and sign it. It is the cheapest due-diligence evidence you will ever create.
- If someone keeps breaking a rule, suspect the procedure before you blame the person — often the safe way is genuinely impossible in your galley.
- Praise the crew member who reports the broken fridge. Loudly.
Scope note: the Level 2 and Level 3 food safety awards referred to above are obtained from approved centres of regulated awarding organisations - not from xplor. xplor is not an approved centre or an accredited training provider, and these lessons are preparatory study only: no certificate and no regulated qualification is awarded here.