Food Hygiene Regulations

As a food business owner or food processor, it is your primary responsibility to comply with relevant food safety laws, including the provisions of European Parliament Regulation (EC) 852/2004 on food hygiene - food hygiene regulations, food safety law 1990, Food Hygiene Regulations 2005. It is in your interest to receive the necessary training you need to apply the guidelines and principles to your company.

Essentially, food hygiene and safety legislation is intended to ensure that food is prepared, handled, stored, sold and distributed in a safe and hygienic manner.

Food hygiene regulations - The Food Safety Act 1990

The Food Safety Act, Food Hygiene Regulations is a legal obligation to ensure that food intended for the general public is treated in a controlled and managed manner. It allows food inspectors to inspect food and, if necessary, seize food that is considered unsafe for human consumption.

Responsibilities of food companies under the Food Hygiene Act

·         To ensure that you do not add anything to food or treat food in a way that could harm the health of customers or consumers

·         To ensure that the food you serve or sell meets the customer's standard.

·         To ensure that food is advertised and presented in a way that is not false or misleading for people who eat it.

Food companies would also like to know more about the general food regulations 2004

According to these laws, food business owners must meet the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002. You will want to pay particular attention to Articles 14, 18 and 19.

Article 14

Requirements for Food Safety

Foods that contain many harmful substances may not be sold to the general public or offered for sale. Food with excessive amounts of heavy metal must be avoided at all costs. This knowledge makes it completely unreasonable to expect a guest to eat it in that state.

Article 18

Traceability

Food companies have an obligation to prove where they have purchased food and ingredients and to whom they have delivered. In essence, they must be able to keep track of food reports from food suppliers, including invoices and receipts.

Article 19

Withdrawal and Recall of Products

In the case of producing or distributing food that is considered unsafe, a food company must try to take the food out of circulation. If the products have reached the consumer, the company must inform them of the reason for withdrawal and, if necessary, recall of the consumer products already supplied.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)

Food companies are also obliged to use a food safety management system based on the HACCP principles. The person responsible for developing and maintaining food safety procedures must also have adequate training with regard to the application of HACCP principles.

Here are the seven principles:

• Recognize any hazard (biological and chemical contamination) that must be prevented, eliminated or limited to acceptable levels
• Determine the critical control points at the steps where control is deemed necessary to prevent, eliminate or reduce a hazard to acceptable levels
• Set critical limits at critical control points that separate acceptance from unacceptability to prevent, eliminate or reduce identified hazards; every deviation must be addressed and treated
• Establish effective monitoring procedures and implement them at critical control points in the event of changes that could lead to risks
• Make a plan for specific corrective measures should a hazard arise at a critical control point
• A series of procedures must be established to ensure that HACCP is always correctly implemented in the field of food preparation
• Each food production facility must maintain verifiable and accurate data that must contain details of their own HACCP plan and established critical control points and limits.

The Principles Summarized;

•  Hazard analysis
• Critical control points
• Critical limits
• Critical control monitoring
• Corrective action
• Procedures
• Keep a record

The Food Hygiene Regulations (England) 2006

These rules place a responsibility on all food businesses to ensure that their activities are carried out in a safe and hygienic manner. The activities of a food company have to do with every process that involves preparing or selling food. The food hygiene regulations (England) of 2006 make it a huge crime to deliver food that is unsafe to eat and is harmful to human health, and affects anyone who owns, manages or works in a food business.

Basic Requirements for Food Businesses

As a food business owner, it is your responsibility to ensure that the right level of public health protection is always present. This can be done by identifying food safety hazards and risks that are relevant to your company and by taking appropriate control measures to prevent problems.

In short, your food company must practice and maintain procedures based on HACCP principles (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point). It is especially important to assess them when new products are produced or work procedures change.

As every food business is different, food processors must assess the risks of their own business and work with the relevant controls. For the most part, a company that prepares and treats raw poultry will have to follow different procedures than a company that treats low-risk products such as bread.

It is also important to note that food must be correctly labeled and properly described to meet relevant food safety quality standards and regulations.

In addition, food business owners are required to provide relevant food hygiene training to all food handlers to ensure that their products are completely safe for human consumption.

Here are important points to keep in mind;

Food Spaces Must:

• Be clean and well maintained
• Built and designed in such a way that good hygiene practices are possible
• Sufficient hand washing facilities
• Ensure adequate supply of clean water for food production
• Ensure effective pest control
• Ensure adequate natural or mechanical ventilation
• Provide adequate natural and artificial lighting
• Provide clean toilets that are far away from food rooms
• Ensure adequate drainage

Food Preparation Rooms Must Also Have;

·         Sufficient provisions for both storage and disposal of food waste

·         Sufficient provisions for washing food and equipment

Requirements for Food Handlers

Food companies are required to decide what training their food handlers need by identifying the areas of their work that are likely to affect food hygiene.

It is strongly recommended to maintain a high level of personal hygiene. Some good practices for personal hygiene are

• Wash hands regularly when preparing and handling food
• Dry your hands properly before touching food or touching areas that may come into contact with food
• Do not smoke
• Keep the hair well covered

Employees of food companies with diseases such as diarrhea, vomiting, skin infections or wounds must report to management as soon as possible. In addition, it is highly recommended for workers with diarrhea and vomiting to stay away from their workplace until their symptoms stop - this should be after 48 hours.

Register For a Food Hygiene Course

Looking for an acceptable way to meet food hygiene regulations? Sign up for an online course on food hygiene. We at Intelle Learn Training can give your staff the necessary training they need to maintain the highest level of food hygiene in the workplace. It is important to note that there is no legal requirement to achieve this qualification, but it is still great for your staff to have the necessary skills to keep food contamination away.

Note: it is good practice to renew your food hygiene certificate every three years!