Safety and allergens
The two questions every parent asks, answered properly rather than in a sentence at the bottom of a booking form.
| Area | What we do |
|---|---|
| Ratios | One member of staff per six children in the 6–9 classes, one per eight above that. |
| Boiling sugar | Only staff pour above 140 °C. Children work with it once it is on the slab and safe to touch through gloves. |
| Allergens | Nuts are not used anywhere in the workshop. The full allergen list for each class is sent with the booking. |
| Vetting | All staff are Garda vetted and hold a current first aid certificate. |
| Hygiene | Level 2 food hygiene training for every member of staff; the workshop is registered with the local authority. |
Hot sugar, specifically
Sugar syrup for hard sweets reaches 150 °C, which is hotter than boiling oil and sticks to skin. Staff carry every pan and pour every batch. Children take over once the sugar is on the marble slab and has dropped to a temperature where a gloved hand is safe, which takes about ninety seconds and is the part of the class most of them remember.
Nobody under thirteen goes near a pan on heat. The teen class works with pans under one-to-one supervision and only after two sessions of everything else.
Allergens, in detail
There are no nuts in the building. Not in ingredients, not in staff lunches, not in what children bring for camp lunch. It is the only absolute rule we have and we enforce it at the door.
Present in the workshop: milk, egg, soya, gelatine, wheat (in one class only) and sulphites in some colours. Every booking confirmation lists exactly what is used in that class. Where a substitution is possible we will make it if we know in advance — pectin for gelatine, oat drink for milk — and we will tell you honestly when it is not possible, rather than improvising with a full bench.
Staff
Every member of staff is Garda vetted, holds a current occupational first aid certificate and has Level 2 food hygiene training. Two staff are in the room for every class; a third joins for chocolate days and for parties above sixteen children.
The room itself
Benches are at three heights, so a six-year-old is not reaching over their shoulder at hot equipment. Fire blanket and extinguisher are on the wall by the pans, the first aid kit is by the door, and the accident book has had four entries in nine years — three of them adults.
Registration
The workshop is registered as a food business with Dublin City Council and inspected by the Environmental Health Service. Our most recent inspection report is available on request; we would rather show it than summarise it.