Food Safety
Food Safety Information For Business
Food Law Inspections and your business
The Food Standards Agency have produced a booklet (PDF, 370K) to provide businesses with information about what to expect from a food law inspection.
Starting Up a Food Business
The Food Standards Agency have produced a booklet called 'Your first steps to running a catering business', which is available in English (PDF, 2.35M) and other languages, for people setting up a restaurant, café or other catering business.
Registering your food business
You must register your premises with the Comhairle at least 28 days before opening – registration is free.
Food Registration Form (PDF, 105K)
Further information is available from the Food Standards Agency Website.
Approved Premises
If you operate food premises you may need to be approved by the Comhairle.
Examples of types of premises that are required to be approved local authorities are stand alone (i.e. not attached to a slaughter house, cutting plant or game handling establishment):
- Meat processing plants.
- Meat preparation plants.
- Minced meat processing operations and mechanically separated meat processing plants.
- Shellfish cleansing.
- Fishery products.
- Egg products producer.
- Dairy products producer.
- Certain cold stores.
- Certain wholesale markets.
Please contact us for further information.
Food Safety Management Systems
Under food legislation all food businesses operators (other than primary producers) require to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles. (HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)
The HACCP principles referred to in paragraph 1 consist of the following:
(a) identifying any hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels;
(b) 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;
(c) establishing critical limits at critical control points which separate acceptability from unacceptability for the prevention, elimination or reduction of identified hazards;
(d) establishing and implementing effective monitoring procedures at critical control points;
(e) establishing corrective actions when monitoring indicates that a critical control point is not under control;
(f) establishing procedures, which shall be carried out regularly, to verify that the measures outlined in subparagraphs (a) to (e) are working effectively; and
(g) establishing documents and records commensurate with the nature and size of the food business to demonstrate the effective application of the measures outlined in subparagraphs (a) to (f).
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.
At first glance this can appear quite complicated, however there are standard systems and pro-formas available to help businesses comply with this requirement, some of which are detailed below.
Cooksafe
FSA Scotland has drawn on expertise from the food industry including small businesses, local authorities and the Scottish Food Advisory Committee to develop 'CookSafe'.
It is designed to help catering businesses understand and implement a HACCP-based system. By reading this manual and following the instructions, you will be able to develop HACCP-based procedures that fit your needs.
e-CookSafe was developed as an additional support to the hard copy manual and as a learning tool. Learn more about e-CookSafe.
Please contact us if you require a hard copy of the Cooksafe manual.
Retailsafe
RetailSafe has been designed for retailers handling unwrapped high-risk foods. It has been designed to assist with compliance with the food hygiene regulations that were introduced in January 2006 and is built on the CookSafe approach and structure.
Safer food, better business
Safer food, better business (SFBB) is an innovative and practical approach to food safety management. It has been developed to help small businesses put in place food safety management procedures and comply with food hygiene regulations.
There are a number of SFBB packs available that are designed to meet the specific needs of different food businesses. There are packs for small catering businesses, small retail businesses, and restaurants and takeaways that serve different cuisines, such as Chinese or Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan cuisines. There is also a pack for childminders and a supplement for care homes that is designed to be used with the pack for caterers.
To accompany the SFBB packs an introduction to food hygiene 'Working with food? What you need to know before you start' and a DVD guide, available in 16 different languages, have been produced to help food businesses implement SFBB and train staff on SFBB. The guide can be viewed online at food.gov.uk/sfbbtraining or you can download a copy to your computer.
HACCP for Producers/Manufacturers
Detailed guidance on how to develop a HACCP for your certain types of food businesses is available on the European Commission website (PDF, 235K).
A basic pro-forma is available here ***
A number of local producers/manufacturers use vacuum packing machines and they should consider the particular risk detailed in the Vacuum packing section. ***
Food safety for farmers markets and similar businesses
The information in the guide is designed not only to help market traders and organisers meet food safety requirements, but also to assist traders in the correct labelling of their products to comply with food labelling requirements. The guide remains applicable to similar events such as car boot sales, fetes, agricultural shows and continental markets.
Food Standards Agency Publications
In addition to the documents already mentioned the Food Standards Agency have a number of publications for the public and the food industry. Many of these are available free of charge from Food Standards Agency Publications. Please note all orders will be sent out on a 3 to 5 day delivery.
To order copies:
tel 0845 606 0667
minicom 0845 606 0678
fax 020 8867 3225
email foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk
Some titles can also be downloaded from their website. Some of these are specific to Scotland.
Quick Guide to Jam (PDF, 235K)
Vacuum packing of chilled foodstuffs
The Agency has produced guidance (PDF 240K) and a factsheet (PDF, 65K) to help minimise the risk of Clostridium botulinum in vacuum and modified atmosphere packed chilled foods. The guidance is designed to assist small businesses and local authority environmental health officers assess the risks.
Although vacuum packing techniques are used to increase the shelf-life of chilled foods by removing air, certain bacteria including C. botulinum are still able to grow. C. botulinum is a bacterium that can produce a very harmful toxin that can cause a fatal form of food poisoning. It is therefore important that appropriate controls are in place to keep the food safe.
Although aimed at enforcement officers there is a good online training course on the vacuum packing and modified atmosphere packing of food.
Further business advice is available from Business Gateway.
