What to expect from a food safety inspection

When you start a food business, you must register with the environmental health service at your local council at least 28 days before opening. Registration is free of charge.

Register your food business online.

What types of food businesses need to register?

Most types of food business will need to register, including:

• catering businesses run from home, B&Bs, mobile catering and temporary businesses 
• retailers, restaurants, cafés and takeaways
• food stalls, food vans marquees and pop-up food businesses
• nurseries, schools and care homes
• food manufacturing businesses
• food distributors

When you register your business with your local council, they will advise you on safety requirements and inspections.

Four Cs of food hygiene and safety

If you run a food business, it is your responsibility to ensure that your food is safe, ie not harmful to health or unfit to eat. You must ensure that you keep food preparation areas clean and handle food in a hygienic way.

Important food hygiene and safety considerations can be remembered as the 'four Cs':

Cleaning

Make sure that you keep surfaces and utensils that come into contact with food clean and disinfected where necessary. Ensure that staff wash their hands regularly.

Cooking

Make sure that you serve foods hot and thoroughly cooked. In particular, you should not serve products such as sausages and burgers, and meats such as pork and chicken rare or pink in the middle and when pierced with a knife any juices should run clear, not bloody. Once cooked, you must keep the food covered and hot (above 63°C) to prevent the growth of food poisoning bacteria.

Chilling

Do not put hot food directly into the fridge or freezer, let it cool first. Make sure that food cools within two hours of cooking. Ensure that refrigerators and freezers can store foods at the right temperatures.

Cross-contamination

Keep raw foods separate from cooked and ready to eat foods at all times. Use separate chopping boards and utensils for raw and ready to eat foods. Wash hands after handling raw foods and before touching other foods and utensils.

Your food hygiene responsibilities

You are responsible for monitoring the hygiene and safety levels in your business, in areas including:

• kitchen surfaces and equipment
• refrigerators
• dining areas
• delivery vehicles
• waste disposal
• toilets
• hand washing facilities

Staff and training

You should make sure that food handlers involved in your business receive training in food hygiene. Training should cover areas such as:

• cooking
• temperature control
• cross contamination
• cleaning and disinfection
• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
• personal hygiene
• pest control
• allergy awareness

The level of training needed will depend on the type of work being done. You should also train staff in food contamination accidents and incident reporting. They should be ready to follow emergency procedures if needed.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides fitness to work guidance to help managers and staff prevent the spread of infection. The guidance advises which illnesses and symptoms staff should report. It explains what managers should do in response.

Supplier food hygiene

It is important to have suppliers that you can trust to handle food safely. You should find out if your suppliers:

• are registered with their local council
• have a food safety management system
• supply detailed invoices
• store, transport and pack their goods in a hygienic way 

Make sure they give you accurate product information and specifications, particularly about allergenic ingredients. 

Customer information

Under the Food Safety (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 and European regulations, you must make sure that you give customers accurate descriptions of your food. This includes menus, labelling and advertising. Information given to customers must not be misleading.

Record-keeping

Keeping accurate records will help you comply with your legal requirements. The level of record keeping required will depend on the nature and extent of your food business.

The FSA guides such as the Safe Catering and Safer Food, Better Business packs will help you meet your legal duties and your responsibilities in areas of food safety management procedures and food hygiene regulations.