FOOD SAFETY LEGISLATION

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FOOD SAFETY LEGISLATION
Food Safety legislation is designed to protect
consumers from illness and harm
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Food Legislation

• The Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991
• Regulation EC 852/2004
• Food Hygiene Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

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Role of Enforcement Officers

• Authorised Officers Environmental Health
  Officers
• Provide Food Safety advice
• Inspect food premises
• Enforce legislation covering food
• Investigate outbreaks of food-borne disease and
  possible offences

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Powers of Enforcement Officers

• Powers of entry
• Inspect food and premises
• Power to seize and detain food
• Serve notices
• Power to close
• Prosecute

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Food Safety Law

• Safe Food
• Free from contamination
• Fit for human consumption
• Hygiene of food premises, equipment and personnel
• Hygienic practices (including temperature
  control)
• Control of food poisoning
• Composition, amount and labelling of food.

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The inspection of food premises
Purpose of inspection by an EHP

• Ensure operation is capable of producing safe
  food
• To identify foreseeable incidences of food
  poisoning
• Assess effectiveness of hazard analysis,
  especially in relation to critical control points
  (identify the risks)
• To check standards have been achieved (legal and
  industry guides)
• Identify training needs of staff (competency)
• To provide advice/make recommendations
• To respond to a complaint
• Revisit
• To continually improve food hygiene standards
• To ensure the business complies with the law.

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Food Handler Legal Requirements

• Keep yourself clean
• Keep your workplace clean
• Protect food from contamination or anything that
  could cause harm
• Follow good personal hygiene practices
• Wear appropriate protective clothing
• Tell your employer if you are suffering from or
  are a carrier of a food-borne illness

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Food Handler Legal Requirements

• Legislation also states that food handlers must
  not
• Do anything that would expose food to
  contamination
• Sell food that is unfit for human consumption
• Sell food with an expired date mark
• Work with food if they have symptoms of food
  poisoning

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Notices

• A Hygiene Improvement Notice is used to require
  food businesses to improve something sub-standard
• A Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice can apply
  to
• Premises (prohibiting use of premises)
• Part of premises
• Equipment
• A food business operator

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Penalties for Non-Compliance

• Prohibition from using part of business
• Fines and legal costs
• Prison sentence
• Closure of business
• Prohibition from running a food business
• Criminal record

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Due Diligence

• The principal of defence under The Food Safety
  (Northern Ireland) Order 1991
• A business must be able to demonstrate that it
  has done everything within its power to safeguard
  consumer health
• Accurate records are useful in proving this
  defence these may include
• HACCP
• Monitoring records storage/cooking/delivery
• Pest control
• Cleaning schedules

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What the Law RequiresEC 852/2004 on Hygiene of
Foodstuffs

• Premises must
• Be registered with the local Council
• Be kept clean
• Be maintained in good repair
• Have a good design, layout and construction
• Have adequate facilities for washing equipment
  and food
• Have satisfactory lighting and ventilation
• Have adequate hand washing facilities

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Contd.

• Equipment must
• Be kept clean and in good condition
• Be installed allowing cleaning in the surrounding
  area
• Waste must
• Not accumulate
• Be deposited in closable containers
• Prevent pest access

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Contd

• Personnel must
• Have high standards of personal hygiene
• Wear clean protective clothing
• Report to the proprietor when suffering from
  illness or a condition that may contaminate food
• Be supervised and instructed and/or trained in
  food hygiene matters commensurate with their work
  activities

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Complying with Food Safety Law?
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Food Safety Training

• Legal requirement
• Appropriate to tasks undertaken
• Recorded
• Refreshed

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EC 852/2004 Article 5
Hazard Analysis (HACCP)

• Hazard
• Analysis
• Critical
• Control
• Point
• Hazard anything that could cause harm to
  consumers
• HACCP is designed to help food companies to
  minimise the risk from food hazards

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HACCP System

• Food companies need to
• Analyse the hazards to food safety
• Assess the level of risk from each hazard
• Decide the most critical points that require
  controls
• Implement appropriate controls
• Establish a monitoring system
• Set up procedures to correct problems (corrective
  action)
• Review the system when operations change

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Record Keeping

• Legal requirement that certain records are kept
  as part of the HACCP-based food safety management
  system, eg
• Fridge/freezer records
• Cooking/hot-holding temperatures
• Cleaning records
• Training records
• Pest control checks

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The Food Hygiene Regulations (Northern Ireland)
2006

• Applies to high-risk foods
• Cold foods- store below 8oC
• Hot foods store above 63oC
• During service -
• Cold food max 4hrs at room temperature then
  discard or refrigerate
• Hot food maximum 2 hrs at room temperature

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Summary

• Environmental Health Officers have wide-ranging
  powers to control food safety
• Controls are the responsibility of everybody
• Many penalties for non-compliance
• Due diligence defence available
• Record-keeping is a legal requirement
• Every business must carry out a Hazard Analysis