What do I need to do?
Every food business is required by law to have a food safety management system that identifies potential food hazards within your food business. You must then determine which of these hazards need to be managed to ensure that food is safe, implement effective control measures and monitoring procedures to prevent the risks of causing harm to users and keep written records of your actions monitor. This system is sometimes referred to as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points).
Your hazard analysis system should be reviewed annually and whenever you make any changes to your business, for example to your menu or equipment.
Advice and Guidance
The Food Standards Agency has developed a range of food safety management packages for different sectors of the food industry, to help food business operators control their food safety management procedures.Safer Food, Better Business
One of the main systems used is a package called Safer Food, Better Business, which helps small businesses with food safety management procedures. There are a number of Safer Food, Better Business packages available designed to meet the specific needs of different food businesses (retail, caterers, childminders, different cooking methods), all of which can be downloaded off the Food Standards Agency website. Alternatively you can order a copy through the Public Protection Department by filling in our online form at a cost of £25.
To help you keep a record of your monitoring you can use food safety monitoring sheets.
MyHACCP
The Food Standards Agency has also introduced the new MyHACCP tool with the aim of supporting small food manufacturing businesses to develop their HACCP-based food safety management system. It takes you through a step by step process to identify food safety hazards and controls and gives Adobe PDF output to download from your HACCP study and HACCP-based controls.
As part of the routine inspections, food safety officers will check that the business with an appropriate food safety management system is based on HACCP. This can affect a business food hygiene rating.
If you need further help, contact us through our online form.