All local authorities across the UK now run a food hygiene rating scheme – commonly known as ‘Scores on the Doors’. The Food Standards Agency are currently proposing to make the display of your food hygiene scheme compulsory. Currently the food safety rating of your business is published on a website for the public and media to read. Local newspapers will often report on these scores giving good or bad publicity to your businesses dependant on your score.
Our talented Environmental Health Practitioners can audit your business for you and give advice on what you need to do to achieve top marks. We can do this on a contract basis, visiting as often as is needed for the size or type of your business. We can also do a one-off audit so that you can gauge what you need to do to keep up to date with regulations.
PERSONALISED FOOD SAFETY MANUAL
If you are a small caterer or retailer we can help you complete, implement and keep up to date with your ‘Safer Food Better Business’ pack. You will need this as a minimum to achieve a good score on the door.
If you are larger food business, we can help you to implement a Food Safety Management System to suit your business needs. UK food hygiene regulations require businesses to instigate, implement and maintain documented procedures based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). If this sounds complicated, you will be pleased to know that we can make this easy for you.
FOOD HYGIENE AUDIT
We can carry out regular audits on a contracted basis or as a one off. Your business will be inspected by an enforcement officer from your local environmental health department. Our food hygiene audit will let you know what you need to do to comply with food hygiene regulations and to get a good food hygiene score.
SCORES ON THE DOOR PREDICTIONS AND ADVICE FOR 5 STARS
Our technicians are Environmental Health Practitioners with experience of carrying out local authority food safety inspections. We know what the local authority is looking for when they decide what rating you will be given. We can predict your score according to this rating scheme and advise you what you need to do to improve your score.
HANDLING FOOD COMPLAINTS AND FOOD POISONING ALLEGATIONS
From time to time you may get a complaint that something is wrong with your food or allegations that someone ate from your business and got food poisoning. We can take the stress of these complaints away from you. We will carry out a full investigation on your behalf, we will liaise with the customer as necessary and also deal with your local authority if the complainant has reported the issue to them.
ADVICE ON ALLERGENS
The law requires that caterers and retailers need to have accurate allergen information for each food product and menu item so that correct information is given to anyone with a food allergy. You must also take certain steps when preparing food for someone with an allergy to ensure their food does not become contaminated with the allergen.
Our experts can work with caterers to gather the necessary food allergen information in a suitable format and to ensure procedures are implemented to prevent allergen contamination.
ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE LIAISON WITH YOUR LOCAL AUTHORITY
Our food hygiene consultants have extensive enforcement experience and can liaise confidently with EHOs or challenge their decisions if required. We can also help you with any appeals against your food hygiene rating scheme.