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Terms and Conditions of Business
Professional Indemnity Insurance
Food Handlers Reporting Diseases
Work Entry Rules for Business Investors
Premium Rate Telephone Numbers
Employment and Hazardous Substances
Health and Safety Offences Act
Directors Liability to Health Safety
Website Access for Disabled People
Electronic Commerce Regulations
Throughout the United Kingdom there are vast amount of different workers in different industries who will be handling food, whether they be in the catering industry or the farming industry. As a consequence it is necessary to have specific legislation in the UK dealing with all aspects of food hygiene.
The Food Hygiene (England) Regulations were introduced in 2006 affecting all food businesses such as caterers, primary producers (for example farmers), manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
The regulations provide the framework for the European Union Laws on food hygiene to be established in England and Wales.
The new legislation was established to set out clearly the duty of food businesses to produce food safely and to achieve consistency.
How the legislation will affect your business depends upon the size and type of your business.
Most food business will be required to be in contact with their local authority to register their business with that local authority. This requirement was first established by the European Union Regulations and now is required under UK law by the Food Hygiene Regulations.
Food business operators whose establishments are required to be registered should approach the relevant local authority preferably before the premises open. It is often good practice to do this before you have even started using the new premises. If you have previously registered the premises and have not changed the type of work which you do then you will not be required to register them again.
The premises for certain types of businesses need to be approved by the local authority rather than being registered. In order to gain approval for you business you will be required to approach the local authority directly.
Businesses that produce the following foods will need to be approved by the local authority:
Eggs
Milk and dairy products
Fish and fish products
The Regulations state that all food business operators must put into place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure based on the principle of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP).
The principle of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) is an internationally recognised and recommended system of food safety management. It focuses specifically on identifying the critical points in a process whereby food safety problems or hazards could possibly arise and putting steps in place to prevent any of these hazards occurring and anything going wrong.
The principle of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) consists of the following:
Identifying any hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels
Identifying the critical control points at the step or steps at which control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard or to reduce it to acceptable levels
Establishing critical limits at critical points that separate acceptability from unacceptability for the prevention, elimination or reduction of identified hazards
Establishing and implementing effective monitoring procedures
Establishing corrective actions
Reviewing the procedure whenever any modification is made in the product, process, or any step and making changes where necessary
Creating documents and records applicable to the nature and size of the food business in order to demonstrate that the above measures have been effectively implemented
The Food Hygiene Regulations specify that all food handlers are supervised and instructed or trained in food hygiene matters in relation to the work activity which they perform. Furthermore the Regulations state that those responsible for the development and maintenance of the HACCP will have received adequate training in the application of those principles. These persons must also ensure that there is full compliance with any requirements for training programmes for people working in the food sector which are specified by national law.
All people who handle food during the course of the business must have received appropriate supervision and be either instructed or trained in food hygiene to ensure that they handle the food safely.
There is no legal requirement to attend a formal training course or to get a formal qualification. Many businesses feel that it is good practice to ensure that their staff does this, however.
There are other ways in which these skills can be obtained such as on-the-job training, self study or prior experience from other jobs or training.
It is the responsibility of the operator of the food business to ensure that all his staff is adequately trained in food safety.
There is further legislation in relation to the microbiological criteria for foodstuffs.
This legislation has been in place since January 2006 and works alongside the European Union food hygiene legislation.
The Microbiological criteria can be used by food businesses in order to verify and validate their food safety management procedures and when assessing the acceptability of foodstuffs, or their manufacturing, handling and distribution processes.
Microbiological criteria should be applied within the framework of procedures based on the above HACCP principles.
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