Environmental health officers
Environmental health officers are concerned with the hygiene and safety of food through all stages of manufacture, distribution and storage. They enforce many acts, including:
Food labelling
Food labels are used to give us information so that we can choose between foods. There are rules that protect from false claims or misleading descriptions, and there are clear guidelines about what labels can show.
Labels are there to tell you what you ate buying, the law says that the name of a product must not be misleading and state what kind of food it is. It also has to tell us if the food has undergone a process.
Many labels make claims about the food they are describing. Some of these claims are strictly regulated by law. It is important for the consumer to be aware of what claims on labels may mean.
Some foods have GM labelling, but however carefully they have been assessed for safety and they may not still feel confident.
The food Safety Act 1990
This is a law which covers the safety of food at all stages, from raw ingredients through to finished products. The law concentrates on ensures that the food is of the nature, substance and quality demanded by the purchaser.
Under this act, food handlers may be prosecuted if they do not meet a quality that is consistent and if the food is unsafe for consumption. The only way in which they can not be prosecuted is if they have taken all reasonable precautions and “exercised all due diligence to avoid commission of the offence”-“due diligence”. Anyone that handles food must be able to prove that all precautions were taken to avoid any possible contamination of the food. Haccp can be helpful in providing evidence that all precaution were taken to ensure that the food was hygienic and safe.
The act makes it an offence to sell food that it:
- Unsafe for human consumption
- Not of the nature or quality demanded or expected by the purchaser
- Falsely or misleadingly presented
All food handlers are required to receive training “appropriate to their job”, this mean that for the particular job that food handlers do they require some training which is appropriate. This is given by companies themselves “in-house”.
Food premises must be registered with the local district council.
The Act enforced mainly by environmental health officers who have the power to:
- Enter food premises to investigate
- Inspect food
- Yale samples of food
- Seize food (i.e. take all the food)
- Ask justice to the Peace to condemn food which is unsafe
The Act also allows the environmental health officers to request that improvements are made to unhygienic premises.
Anyone who owns manages or work in a food business is affected by these Regulations. Every food process which deals with preparing or selling food can be classed as a food business activity including:
Anyone who handles food, or whose actions could affect its safety, must follow the Regulations this includes people who sell food and anyone who cleans articles or equipment which come into contact with food.
Identifying and controlling food hazards
A food business must make sure that:
- Food is supplied or sold in a hygienic way
- Identify food safety hazards
- Know which steps in activities are critical for food safety
- Ensure safety controls are in place, maintained and reviewed
Food premises should:
- Be clean and maintained in good repair
- Be designed and constructed to permit good hygiene practice
- have suitable controls in place to protect against pests
Food handlers must protect food and ingredients against contamination which will make them unfit for human consumption. For example, uncooked, poultry should not contaminate ready-to-eat foods, either through direct contact or through work surfaces or equipment.
The food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995
This ensures good temperature control of food and that it is fundamental to the safe operation of many food businesses. These Regulations also allow some flexibility, consistent with food safety, to take into account practical handling. These Regulations place increased emphasis on controlling risks and on the amount of practices and procedures as the controls have to be effective.
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Identify all steps in you activated which are critical to food safety.
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Ensure adequate safety controls are in place, maintained and reviewed
The guidance is intended to help food businesses and enforcement authorities the new food temperature control requirements which operate. It contains advice on the types of foods which are required to be held under temperature control.
The Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995 require foods which are likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the formation of toxins to be held at or below 8 degrees Celsius or above 63 degrees Celsius. The Regulations ensure consistent food safety.
The act requires food businesses to identify food hazards and to ensure that controls are in place to eliminate or minimise risks to consumers.
Hazards analysis systems have an important part to play in helping to ensure that food is produced safely. Chill control, in particular is very often critical to food safety, which means that businesses should understand which foods need to be chill controlled, be aware of the relationship between temperature and the shelf-life of food, and be sure that any flexibility allowed by the Regulations is operated in a way which does not jeopardise the safety of food.
