Food Safety Legislation

What changes?
What about training?
Who will it affect?
What do I have to do?
What advice is available from the Food Standards Agency?

What changes?

Food safety legislation changed on 1 January 2006. Regulation 852/2004 (EC) of the European Parliament and Council on the Hygiene of Food Stuffs now applies to all food businesses except primary producers. The Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006, has also come into force.

On the 29 April 2004, the European Parliament and the Council, issued Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs.

Article 5 states that: Food business operators shall put into place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure based on the principles of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP). The HACCP principles referred to above consist 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 control points that separate acceptability from unacceptability for the prevention, elimination or reduction of identified hazards

Establishing and implementing effective monitoring procedures at critical control points

Establishing corrective actions when monitoring indicates that a critical control point is not under control

Establishing procedures, which shall be carried out regularly, to verify that the measures outlined in the above paragraphs

Establishing documents and records commensurate with the nature and size of the food business to demonstrate the effective application of the measures outlined in the above paragraphs

When any modification is made in the product, process, or any step, food business operators shall review the procedure and make the necessary changes to it.

What about training?

Chapter 12 states that food business operators are to ensure that: “food handlers are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity; that those responsible for the development and maintenance of the procedure referred to in Article 5 (1) of the Regulation or for the operation of relevant guides have received adequate training in the application of the HACCP principles, and compliance with any requirement of national law concerning training programmes for persons working in certain food sectors”.

Managers who are responsible for maintaining a food safety management system will require adequate training to enable them to carry out the statutory requirement.

The Food Standards Agency, Learning and Skills Council, Qualification and Curriculum Authority, together with the examination bodies have prepared the framework for a new set of food safety qualifications.

Familiar titles such as the Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene and Intermediate Certificate in Food Safety have changed to help train managers and other staff in the essentials of Food Safety Management Systems, (including safe practices with regards to cleaning, chilling, cooking and cross-contamination).

For information about the new qualifications, visit the Environmental Services's Training web pages. See Training.

Also involved is the new Sector Skills Council for the Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism Industry – People 1st. The SSC's address is:

People 1st
2nd Floor
Armstrong House
38 Market Square
Uxbridge
UB8 1LH

Main switchboard: 0870 060 2550

www.people1st.co.uk

Who will it affect?

No matter what the nature or size of the business, owners will have to ensure that they have a sound food safety management system in place.

What do I have to do?

As of 1 January 2006, when the EU Regulations became UK law, it became the responsibility of food businesses owners to ensure that they comply with these.

Guidance is available from The Food Standards Agency or your local authority environmental health department. Visit the Food Standards Agency web site at http://www.food.gov.uk/catering

What advice is available from the Food Standards Agency?

The Agency has developed a Safer Food Better Business toolkit to help small catering businesses demonstrate that they have a documented food safety management system based on the principles of hazard analysis critical control points.

Visit the the Food Standards Agency website for more details about a toolkit designed by the Food Standards Agency to help small catering businesses comply with the legislation: See Safer food, better business for caterers.

Safer Food Better Business is free! It will take you approximately five hours to set up your safe methods to ensure food safety and then just one minute a day to complete the diary. Your business and customers will benefit from this valuable management support tool. For more details download and print Safer food better business [PDF file] (File size 441.7Kb).