Complying with food safety and hygiene standards - Kaffe O and Belfast City Council (video)
In this guide:
- What to expect from a food safety inspection
- Your responsibilities for food safety
- Food inspector's rights and powers
- Possible outcomes of a food inspection
- How to comply with changes requested from a food safety inspection
- How to appeal against a decision of a food inspector
- Complying with food safety and hygiene standards - Kaffe O and Belfast City Council (video)
Your responsibilities for food safety
Measures you must take to make sure food produced by your business is safe to eat.
When you start a food business, you must register with the environmental health service at your local council at least 28 days before opening. Registration is free of charge.
Register your food business online.
What types of food businesses need to register?
Most types of food business will need to register, including:
- catering businesses run from home, B&Bs, mobile catering and temporary businesses
- retailers, restaurants, cafés and takeaways
- food stalls, food vans marquees and pop-up food businesses
- nurseries, schools and care homes
- food manufacturing businesses
- food distributors
When you register your business with your local council, they will advise you on safety requirements and inspections.
Four Cs of food hygiene and safety
If you run a food business, it is your responsibility to ensure that your food is safe, ie not harmful to health or unfit to eat. You must ensure that you keep food preparation areas clean and handle food in a hygienic way.
Important food hygiene and safety considerations can be remembered as the 'four Cs':
Cleaning
Make sure that you keep surfaces and utensils that come into contact with food clean and disinfected where necessary. Ensure that staff wash their hands regularly.
Cooking
Make sure that you serve foods hot and thoroughly cooked. In particular, you should not serve products such as sausages and burgers, and meats such as pork and chicken rare or pink in the middle and when pierced with a knife any juices should run clear, not bloody. Once cooked, you must keep the food covered and hot (above 63°C) to prevent the growth of food poisoning bacteria.
Chilling
Do not put hot food directly into the fridge or freezer, let it cool first. Make sure that food cools within two hours of cooking. Ensure that refrigerators and freezers can store foods at the right temperatures.
Cross-contamination
Keep raw foods separate from cooked and ready to eat foods at all times. Use separate chopping boards and utensils for raw and ready to eat foods. Wash hands after handling raw foods and before touching other foods and utensils.
Your food hygiene responsibilities
You are responsible for monitoring the hygiene and safety levels in your business, in areas including:
- kitchen surfaces and equipment
- refrigerators
- dining areas
- delivery vehicles
- waste disposal
- toilets
- hand washing facilities
Staff and training
You should make sure that food handlers involved in your business receive training in food hygiene. Training should cover areas such as:
- cooking
- temperature control
- cross contamination
- cleaning and disinfection
- Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
- personal hygiene
- pest control
- allergy awareness
The level of training needed will depend on the type of work being done. You should also train staff in food contamination accidents and incident reporting. They should be ready to follow emergency procedures if needed.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides fitness to work guidance to help managers and staff prevent the spread of infection. The guidance advises which illnesses and symptoms staff should report. It explains what managers should do in response.
Supplier food hygiene
It is important to have suppliers that you can trust to handle food safely. You should find out if your suppliers:
- are registered with their local council
- have a food safety management system
- supply detailed invoices
- store, transport and pack their goods in a hygienic way
Make sure they give you accurate product information and specifications, particularly about allergenic ingredients.
Customer information
Under the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 and European regulations, you must make sure that you give customers accurate descriptions of your food. This includes menus, labelling and advertising. Information given to customers must not be misleading.
Under current operating arrangements for Northern Ireland, food products placed on the NI market will continue to follow EU rules. From Autumn 2023, the Windsor Framework will allow GB public health standards to apply for pre-packed retail goods moved via a new NI retail movement scheme and placed on the NI market. Therefore, goods moving via this route containing GB standard products will be able to be placed on the NI market.
Record-keeping
Keeping accurate records will help you comply with your legal requirements. The level of record keeping required will depend on the nature and extent of your food business.
The FSA guides such as the Safe Catering and Safer Food, Better Business packs will help you meet your legal duties and your responsibilities in areas of food safety management procedures and food hygiene regulations.
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Food inspector's rights and powers
Find out what action the food safety inspector can take when inspecting your food business.
Authorised officers from your local council will visit your premises to check that your business is complying with food law and that you are producing food that is safe to eat.
The frequency of inspection will depend on the type of business and its previous record. Some premises might be inspected at least every six months, others much less often.
Authorised officers usually do not make an appointment. They have the right to:
- enter and inspect premises
- take food samples
- examine working methods and management procedures
- look at records
When might a food inspection take place?
The inspection may take place in the following circumstances:
- when a new food business opens
- routine programmed inspections
- inspections following a complaint or new information about the business
Authorised food safety officers must show identification when they arrive. They should always give you feedback on an inspection. The inspection must follow the framework agreement on local council food law enforcement as set out by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
It must also follow the Food Law Code of Practice, which states that inspectors should:
- offer advice if appropriate or requested
- encourage food business operators to adopt good practice
- discuss any corrective action that may be necessary, and the timescale for corrective action to take place
- inform you of any further action the inspector plans to take
Food inspectors should also distinguish between:
- actions recommended for the sake of good practice
- actions required to comply with legal requirements
During the visit, the food inspector might take samples and photographs of food. They may inspect your records or remove suspect foods. Following their visit, they might write to you informally asking you to put right any problems they found.
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Possible outcomes of a food inspection
What happens following a food safety inspection, including enforcement actions and notices.
Food safety officers can take enforcement action against your business to protect the public. The officer should confirm any action you need to take in a written letter. They must give you enough time to put actions into effect, unless there is an immediate risk to public health.
During an inspection of your business, an officer can also serve a legal notice.
Examples of food safety notices
Examples of notices you may receive during a food safety inspection include:
Hygiene improvement notice
This sets out what you must do to comply with food hygiene law. You may receive this if your business is breaking the law.
Food information improvement notice
This sets out what you need to do to comply with food information law. You may receive this if your business is breaking the law.
Hygiene emergency prohibition (HEP) notice
This forbids you to use certain processes, premises or equipment and must be confirmed by a court. Once confirmed by the court, it becomes a HEP order.
Remedial action notice
This forbids the use of certain processes, premises or equipment. It can also impose conditions on how you carry out a process. It's similar to a HEP notice, but it does not need to be confirmed by a court.
It is a criminal offence not to comply with a notice once served.
Food business prohibition order
In serious cases, inspectors can also recommend prosecution. If a prosecution is successful, the court may forbid you from using certain processes, premises or equipment. It could ban you from managing a food business, eg via a food business prohibition order. It could also lead to a fine or imprisonment.
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How to comply with changes requested from a food safety inspection
What to do if a food safety officer takes action against your food business.
If a food safety officer finds problems with your food business, they will itemise the issues in writing to you. They will give you a reasonable amount of time to make changes unless there is an imminent risk to public health.
Once you comply with the changes, inform the food officer immediately. This ensures there is little or no disruption to your business.
If the officer has removed the food for analysis or examination, you should check with them for the results.
Reporting food incidents
If you become aware of a food incident - for example, your food has become contaminated - you must immediately remove your food from sale or recall it from customers. You must also notify the authorities immediately.
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How to appeal against a decision of a food inspector
How to appeal against action taken by food safety inspector against your food business.
If you disagree with a decision made by a food safety officer, you should first discuss this with the officer. If you are unable to resolve the issue with the person you have been dealing with, ask them for the name of their manager. You can then ask to speak with them, or write to them if you prefer, to see if you can resolve the issue.
If you still disagree after this process, you should use the local council's complaints procedure to escalate your problem. If this doesn't resolve the issue, you could approach your local councillor or contact the Northern Ireland Ombudsman.
You can appeal further if you are dealing with:
- a hygiene improvement notice - you can appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction
- a hygiene emergency prohibition order - you can appeal to the county court
The documents you received with the notice should contain guidance on how to appeal, including how long you have to do it.
See The Food Hygiene Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 for details on the appeals.
Where food is found to be unfit for human consumption, the food will be seized and presented to a Justice of the Peace for condemnation. You have a right to claim compensation if the court decides that:
- the officer has shut your premises without proper reason
- food has been wrongly seized or detained
The Food Standards Agency provides detailed guidance on how to appeal against a decision made by a local authority after inspecting your business.
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What to expect from a food safety inspection
Complying with food safety and hygiene standards - Kaffe O and Belfast City Council (video)
Orla Smyth, Owner of Belfast-based Kaffe O, explains how they approach food hygiene and safety to achieve a food hygiene rating of five.
Kaffe O is a Scandinavian-inspired café business with multiple sites in Belfast. They have attained a food hygiene rating of five.
Owner Orla Smyth explains how they have created a culture of prioritising food hygiene and safety throughout the business. Orla describes the approach they take to food hygiene, including staff training, audits and checklists.
Christina McErlean, Food Safety Environmental Health Officer at Belfast City Council, outlines the food hygiene inspection process and the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. Christina explains the three areas evaluated during an inspection and what happens following a council's assessment of a food business.
Case StudyOrla Smyth Christina McErleanContent category
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