Food hygiene legislation

This affects all food businesses including caterers, primary producers (farmers), manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

The most important food hygiene regulations are:

Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs

This sets out the basic hygiene requirements from premises and facilities to the personal hygiene of staff and is enforced under the domestic regulations The Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006

The Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013

Food must be traceable from farm to fork. Food business operators must have written procedures in place to manage food safety hazards in their business and to ensure that the food they sell is safe. These food safety management procedures are based on the principles of HACCP (hazard analysis critical control point) and must be reviewed if new products are produced or working procedures alter.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has produced Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) packs to help small businesses put in place food safety management procedures and comply with food hygiene regulations.

The packs are based on the FSA campaign of the 4C’s focusing on the themes of cross- contamination, chilling, cooking and cleaning and includes the types of checks management should be carrying out to ensure their safe methods are working and being put into action.

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 cuisine such as Chinese cuisine 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 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 on the Food Standards Agency website

What Do I Need To Do?

If you have not already done so, you will need to put into place a food safety management system for your business. “Safer Food Better Business” is one example of a system which could be used or adapted to suit your business.

The benefits of having such a system in place are numerous: