Trading Standards & Licensing
The Food Safety Act 1990 and regulations made under it make it an offence for anyone to sell or process food for sale, which is harmful to health. They also place an obligation on businesses to ensure that their activities are carried out in a hygienic way. The council is responsible for ensuring that local businesses comply with these regulations.
The Food Safety Section deals with a wide variety of disciplines such as food hygiene, food standards, food complaints, food labelling, health and safety in food premises, infectious diseases control, food and water sampling, animal feedstuffs and licensing. The service also provides low cost specialist Food Hygiene Training.
There are approximately 2230 food premises in the Borough all of which are part of a continuous risk rated inspection programme. A team of dedicated officers regularly inspect food businesses to ensure that they are complying with the law and to offer advice and assistance. During the course of a inspection an officer will investigate the following areas:
• Establish that there is an active Food Safety Management System in place.
• Ensure that food is handled, prepared, cooked and served in a hygienic manner so that food poisoning will not occur.
• Speak to staff to ensure they understand the principals of food hygiene and have been adequately trained.
• Ensure that there is no evidence of pest infestations
• Check that foods are labelled correctly
Service Response Times
Achieve standard of first response to service requests within 24 Hours on 90% of the time in 2005/06. Rising to 95% by end of March 2008.
This request is monitored and is part of the Environmental Health & Regulation Division Improvement Plan 2005-2008.
We also aim to achieve the following service standard response:
• Written response to VIP requests for service – 10 days
• Stage 1 and 2 complaints – 15 days
• Stage 3 – 30 days
• Freedom of Information Requests 20 days.
When a customer makes a service request they will be advised of which team will be dealing with the request and a worksheet reference number will be given for the customer to follow up his/her enquiry. Customers will be notified of the outcome to any investigation
Accessing the Service
The service is a free service available to all businesses and residents of the Borough.
In Person:
The Service has a “duty officer” who is available Monday – Friday 09:00-17:00, the duty officer will answer any telephone calls or personal visits that relate to food hygiene or standards.
By Writing:
All letters will be passed to an officer to investigate and respond to.
Eligibility
None.
Required Customer Information
None.
Service Level Agreement and Turnaround
The Service aims to:
1. Provide a first response within 24 hours of initial contact by telephone.
2. Respond to Freedom of Information Request within 20 days of initial receipt.
3. Where possible Investigate all notifications of infectious diseases within 24 hours of notification.
More information about this service
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