Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

Flooding - advice if your business has been flooded

General health and safety

The following points cover general flooding advice but you may need to assess any other risks specific to your business and manage those accordingly:  

• During the recovery operation you need to assess the risks to staff and the public; where possible avoid risks, otherwise manage them so as to reduce them to a safe level. Provide appropriate safety instruction and training to staff for the circumstances.
• You should assume that any water that has affected property and items could contain sewage and protect yourself and staff accordingly. When cleaning up try to avoid contact with floodwater.
• Wear protective clothing including rubber gloves, Wellingtons, overalls etc.
• Avoid swallowing any water and wash hands thoroughly and regularly.
• If your property has been heavily contaminated with raw sewage please contact the Council as soon as possible regarding disposal of property.
• Use specialist detergents if cleaning up any petrol/oil and follow safety information from the manufacturer. Ensure adequate ventilation.
• Do not use any electrical equipment or circuits that have been flooded until they have been checked and declared safe by a qualified electrician.
• If the power supply is off assess the risk to your staff and customers and consider closing the business if necessary.
• Do not use any internal lifts until power supplies are back to normal or your staff may become stranded if the supply is interrupted.
• Do not enter any confined spaces e.g. cellars where there is known oil/petrol contamination.
• If you are on a private water supply and have been affected by flooding you should assume the supply may have been contaminated and is not fit to use without boiling. Even if you have a treatment method it may be the contamination is heavy (this may not be visible) and the treatment method may have been unable to cope. Therefore still treat water as contaminated and boil accordingly.

Contact the Vale’s Environmental Protection Team on 01235 520202 for further advice. 
 
If your food business has been flooded
There could be a serious risk to public health from infection and food contamination. 

• Do not prepare any food or re-open the establishment until the premises have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. The floodwater may be heavily contaminated with sewage, harmful bacteria and other pollutants.
• All food contact surfaces, equipment, utensils, work tables etc. must be thoroughly sanitised before re-using.
• Any heavily contaminated items should be thrown away.
• All food that may have been contaminated must be destroyed. Initially this must be double bagged and placed in a sealed container to prevent attracting pests.
• Contact your commercial waste contractor to arrange collection of this food in the normal way.
• If you become ill or suffer any gastric symptoms following the clean up please visit your GP immediately. Nobody should handle or prepare food if they are suffering from severe diarrhoea, vomiting etc.

If in doubt, please contact the Council’s Food and SafetyTeam on 01235 520202. 
 
Power cuts and food
A number of businesses will have suffered from power cuts and disruption to electricity supplies.

• High-risk food (such as cooked meat, fish, dairy, egg, rice products etc.) must be stored at or below 8ºC to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria.
• For chilled food, if your refrigerator/s have been without power so that food has risen above 8ºC for up to four hours, it is important to ensure that the food is immediately chilled to 8ºC or below, or that it is cooked (please see below), or thrown away. (Only one single period of up to four hours is permitted out of refrigeration; food should be thrown away if it has been above 8ºC for more than four hours).
• For frozen food, provided freezer doors are kept closed, food should remain frozen in disconnected freezers for up to 24 hours. If food has defrosted it should be safe if it is immediately treated as chilled food, refrigerated to 8ºC or below, and used up within two days. If frozen food has risen above 8ºC for more than four hours it should be thrown away.
• As an alternative to chilling food to 8ºC or below in the above situations (where it has been out of refrigeration for up to four hours), businesses which are still able to trade hygienically and are serving cooked (or properly re-heated) food may keep that food above 63ºC prior to serving.
• If you are affected by intermittent power cuts, consider using cool boxes and ensuring a ready supply of ice blocks and freeze these at times when the power is on.
• Try to avoid opening refrigerator / freezer doors, particularly when the power is off. The temperature of an open fridge rises very quickly.
• If you are unable to keep high-risk food under adequate temperature control you must not use that food.  Depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary for you to close your business.