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This guide is for restaurants and other food service businesses, as well as shops selling food. It informs you about good food hygiene practice, which is essential for you to obey the law and protect your business by selling food that is to safe to eat. It also explains these key laws that affect your food business, including what these laws require and how they are enforced.
Good food hygiene is necessary for you to prepare or sell food that is safe for consumption. It is important for you and your staff to understand what good hygiene is and to follow the advice and procedures given here.
To highlight the importance of good food hygiene, here are some of the things it allows your business to do:
The key to good food hygiene is controlling harmful bacteria, which can cause serious illness. The four main things to remember for food hygiene are:
Known as the 4 C’s, these proper use of these concepts will help you prevent the most common food safety problems.
Properly chilling food helps prevent harmful bacteria from growing. Some food needs to be kept chilled to keep it safe. Examples of this include cooked dishes, ready-to-eat food such as desserts and prepared salads, and food with a ‘use by’ date. It is important not to leave such food standing around at room temperature. For proper chilling procedures, make sure you do the following:
Cross-contamination occurs when bacteria are spread between food, kitchen equipment, or surfaces. It is most likely to happen when raw food comes into contact with ready-to-eat food, equipment, or surfaces. Cross-contamination is one of the most common causes of food poisoning. Take the following steps to avoid cross-contamination:
Effective cleaning gets rid of bacteria on hands, surfaces, and kitchen equipment. This helps stop harmful bacteria from getting onto food. You should take the following steps for effective cleaning:
Cooking food in a thorough manner kills harmful bacteria. So it is very important to make sure that you are cooking food properly. When cooking or reheating, always make sure that it is steaming hot all the way through. Being thorough when cooking is especially important when cooking poultry, pork, rolled joints, and products made from minced meat such as sausages and burgers. This is because there could be bacteria in the middle of these products. They should be hot all the way through and should not be served pink or rare. Whole cuts of beef or lamb, such as cutlets, whole joints, or steaks can be served rare/pink as long as they are fully sealed on the outside.
If you supply or serve food direct to the public, you may be covered by the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. This allows your business to be inspected and given a hygiene rating from ‘0’ at the minimum to ‘5’ at the maximum, based on the hygiene standards found at the time. You will be provided with a sticker/certificate indicating your rating or result. These can be displayed to show your customers how good your hygiene standards are.
The most important food hygiene regulations to note for your business are:
These regulations set out the basic requirements for all aspects of your food business, from your facilities and premises to your staff’s personal hygiene.
One of the key requirements of the regulations is that you must be able to show your procedure of making or selling food that is safe to eat and have this written down. Described below are details of these food safety management procedures.
You must implement ‘food safety management procedures’ based on the principles of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP). You must also do the following:
This essentially means that you must have procedures in place to manage food safety ‘hazards’ in your business. You must have these procedures written down and updated as needed. You must also keep accurate records that can be checked by your local authority.
The regulations are designed to be flexible according to size of your business and the type of work you do. This means that a small business will likely have very simple procedures and records.
What is HACCP?
It is a method of managing food safety. The system is based on implementing procedures to control hazards. It involves:
HACCP doesn’t have to be as complicated as some people think. The important thing is to have food safety procedures in place that are appropriate for your business.
A hazard is something that could be considered dangerous. There are lots of different hazards. When we discuss hazards in relation to food, we are indicating something that could make food unsafe to eat. Food safety hazards can be:
You must register your business premises with your local authority. If you are opening a new business premises, register it at least 28 days before opening. The use of premises in more than one place requires you to register all of them. You must also:
Your premises includes all of the buildings or rooms you use in your business. Your premises must be kept clean and maintained in good condition and repair. The size, design, site, layout, and construction of your premises must allow for adequate maintenance, cleaning, and/or disinfection. You must also avoid or minimise airborne contamination, among other general regulations. Other key aspects that your business must have in adequate accommodation include:
Food waste must be removed, along with other rubbish, from rooms where food is present. You must do this as quickly as possible, to avoid them building up. Put food waste and other rubbish in containers that can be closed, and these containers must be of appropriate construction and kept in sound condition. You must make sure the waste is not a direct or indirect source of contamination.
Training is important because food businesses must make sure that any staff who handle food are instructed and supervised in food hygiene. The person or people responsible for developing and maintaining the food safety management procedures must have received adequate training to enable them to do this.
Your local authority is responsible for enforcing food hygiene laws. To do this, enforcement officers may visit your business premises for inspection. These officers may visit for a routine inspection or as the result of a complaint. Enforcement officers have the right to enter and inspect your premises at any reasonable time. They will usually come without telling you first.
Officers can take ‘enforcement action’ to protect the public when they think it is necessary. Such action can include: