Managing a food business

What must I do as a manager?
What regular safety checks should I make?
Who is responsible for training and supervision?
Is my staff fit to work?
What about contamination?
Contractors and suppliers?
Temperature monitoring of food
Stock control
Food safety management systems

What must I do as a manager?

You must lead by example! Develop a food safety culture.

As the owner and/or manager of a food business you must ensure that you and your staff comply with the provisions of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 of the European Parliament on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs and the Food Safety Act 1990.

Visit www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/hygiene/. Refer to the A to Z for running a safe food business for useful advice.

If your business is within the Royal Borough and you are in doubt please contact the Environmental Health Department’s Food Safety Team. If your business is outside the Royal Borough contact your local authority environmental health department for guidance.
You may find the following links useful:

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What regular safety checks should I make?

Before opening and closing your business you must make certain checks. Staff will need supervision, instruction and training. It is a good idea to have spot checks.

Daily opening checklist

Check fridges, freezers and other essential equipment are clean and working properly
Ensure your staff are fit for work, wearing clean clothing and know why, how, where and when to wash their hands.
Ensure soap, paper towels, and hot water are available to wash hands.

Daily closing checklist

At the end of each day throw away food past its "Use By" date
Do not leave food lying about
Replace dirty cloths with clean cloths
Remove waste food

You may also wish to consider appropriate intervals for checks covering:

Deep cleaning
Maintenance
Deliveries
Equipment
Temperature probe
Pest control

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Who is responsible for training and supervision?

You are responsible for the supervision, instruction and training of your staff. You must help and ensure that any training they have received is put into practice. Visit our Hygiene and Safety Training pages for more information.

Is my staff fit to work?

Staff with diarrhoea, vomiting, infectious disease or open wound must not handle food. They should be sent home or given a non-food handling activity out of the food room. Open wounds, cuts and such like should be covered with a visible waterproof dressing.

What about contamination?

Objects (such as glass, metal, plastic, hair, and such like ) must not get into food. Germs (bacteria, viruses, moulds, and such like) must not contaminate food either.

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Contractors and suppliers

Check your suppliers' premises and their pest control records
Always check the condition of the delivery vehicle and the temperature at which food is being delivered to you. Reject unsatisfactory deliveries, if in doubt contact or change the supplier
Ask you suppliers for references such as their cleaning or pest control contractors. If selecting a pest control contractor ensure that it is a member of the British Pest Control Association. For more information go to www.bpca.org.uk
Understand the terms and conditions of the contract

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Temperature monitoring of food

You may need to use a probe thermometer to show that you have safe cooking, hot holding and chilling methods in place
Staff may need training in the use of a thermometer and how to record the readings
Staff will need to know what to do if the temperatures are not within your prescribed limits
Keep the probes clean disinfected and calibrated

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Stock control

First in; first out is vital
Train your staff in effective stock control
Discard food with an expired use by date
Decide how much stock you need to carry
Check all stock deliveries
Carry out stock checks

Food safety management systems

Ensure that you have a satisfactory, workable and demonstrable food safety management system in place that is based on the principles of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP). To do this you may need to increase your knowledge of food safety. If you run a small catering business visit www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/hygiene/sfbb/.

Visit our Hygiene and Safety Training pages for more information.