Thinking of having an Up Pompeii food festival? You need Mango…

The marketplace of Pompeii was filled with stalls laden with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, breads, oils, and cheeses.

Lurcio sighed in contentment and said: “It’s days like today that I almost enjoy being a slave to Ludicrus Sextus and his wife Ammonia.

“Now what do we need for the festival? Figs, swans to roast, a crate of dormice, 25 rounds of goat’s cheese, a sackful of olives, an amphora of olive oil, ten amphoras of wine, no better make that twenty.

“It’s a good thing I brought Felix and Hilaria to help me load all this in the cart.”

He patted the horse’s neck and signalled to the other slaves to start loading.”

Senna the soothsayer wandered over and said: “What’s all this for, Lurcio?”

Lurcio sighed: “Another of my master’s brilliant ideas. A food festival around our villa. We’ve invited half of Pompeii and the other half is catering…”

Senna stopped.

“She’s having a vision,” Felix whispered.

Senna opened her arms and started to cry: “It’s doomed! Beware the canapés of July!”

Lurcio scratched his head: “I thought it was ‘Beware the Ides of March’…”

“Well, my great grandmother wasn’t wrong about that, was she? Runs in the family,” Senna said.

“I foresee a lot of people laid low with food poisoning from those canapés, leading to your master losing his influence in city affairs. I foresee you being sold to pay his debts…and moving to Britannia…”

Lurcio shuddered: “I’d never cope with the rain and cold! It’s a good thing that my master has tablets containing all the city ordinances about food safety, isn’t it?

“He’s hot on complying with regulations and had been up making tablet after tablet to prove he’s got the best and freshest produce and skilled cooks, and he’s briefed everyone about food hygiene.”

Senna looked impressed: “I’ve seen the future and they do much the same. They have something they call an international standard for handling food safely and a system to record everything in detail.

“They call it Mango.”

Lurcio smiled: “What a strange word. I wonder what it means.”

Senna said: “It’s a fruit, I think. I’ve never seen one outside of my visions. Or it could be something that stores records in ‘the cloud’. No need for stacks of tablets. Part of a…”

Senna paused: “Com-poot-a. That’s what it sounded like.”

Lurcio sighed again: “How can it all go wrong if my master’s so careful?”

Senna stared at Hilaria: “It’s her fault. She puts the cooked chicken next to the raw meat…”

Hilaria tried to defend herself but Lurcio waved a hand to brush her aside: “That’s decided then. You’re off chicken. There’s no way I’m ending my days in a bog west of Londinium!”

• Find out how Mango’s online compliance software could help your food festival or foodie event comply with food safety legislation. Book a free demonstration which will be delivered via Zoom. Call Penarth Management on 029 2070 3328 or email info@penarth.co.uk