By law anyone who owns, manages or works in a catering business must make sure they carry out their work safely and hygienically. This page is full of practical advice and information on food safety to help get you off to the right start, please note that this is a brief overview and more specific advice is available in the advice leaflets

Rules about premises

When you choose the premises for your business, it is very important to make sure that they;

You must keep your premises clean and maintained in a good repair and condition. Your premises must allow you to follow good food hygiene practices, including protection against contamination and, in particular pest control.

When you are choosing new premises, or making changes to premises, it is a good idea to ask this department for advice (in addition to contacting the planning department and building control).

Training

People engaged in food handling must be trained and/or supervised. The degree of training required is dependant on their duties and responsibilities and on the level of supervision. A list of training providers is available here.

Managing Food Safety

Food safety management is all about what you do in your business, to make sure it is safe to eat. You are required to put in place ‘food safety management procedures’. These procedures should be documented, and identify all the steps in your activities that are critical to food safety and ensure that adequate controls are in place, maintained and reviewed. There is a pack called Safer Food Better Business that is produced by the food standards agency that can assist you.

Describing and labelling food

You must describe food and drink accurately on menus, backboard and in adverts and any illustrations must be accurately represent the food that you are selling. Descriptions and illustrations must not be misleading. Usually, catering business do not have to label food, however there are more extensive labelling rules for business that supply pre-packed food to catering or retail business or sell products for customers to cook.

Inspections

Enforcement officers will inspect your premises to ensure that you are complying with the legislation. This could either be as a routine visit or because of a complaint; officers have the right to enter and inspect food premises at all reasonable hours and will usually come with giving you prior notice.

The frequency of routine inspections depends on the type of business and your previous record of compliance. Some premises maybe inspected every six months, others much less often.