Food safety standards

These notes are adapted from the Food Standards Agency Food Retail Pack to assist you in the smooth and safe running of your shop/cafe/tea bar.

Registration

Once you are ready to start your food business, you must register with your local authority at least 28 days before you begin trading.

If you sell, cook, store, handle, prepare or distribute, you may be considered a food business and will need to register with your local authority

This includes food businesses trading:

from physical customer-facing premises
from home
from a mobile unit or temporary premises
online (for example via social media or a website) or through distance selling (distance selling means any selling that happens without face-to-face contact with the consumer)

Registration will apply to all types of businesses who sell food and or drink, regardless of where you operate from.

Cross-contamination

Cross-contamination is one of the most common causes of food poisoning, and as such must be avoided at all times. You can trigger cross- contamination through mixing cooked and raw food, or spreading harmful bacteria from hands and equipment.

How to avoid contamination:

Good housekeeping. Keep your premises clean, tidy and pest free
Repair structural damage as and when it happens, eg. holes in walls
Repair or replace any damaged or loose equipment and utensils
Make sure your chilled and frozen equipment is well maintained and working properly
Always clean and clear as you go. Be sure to throw out all excess packaging
Follow the manufacturer’s guidelines on how to use and store cleaning chemicals. Keep them separate from food and ensure they are clearly labelled
Make sure that any chemicals you use to control pests are used and stored in the correct way

Personal Hygiene

Staff/volunteers should always wash their hands before handling food, after breaks, after going to the toilet, after emptying bins, after cleaning, after handling raw meat, poultry or eggs.

Staffvolunteers should not smoke, drink, eat or chew gum while handling food. Staff should avoid touching their face or nose, or coughing and sneezing.

All staff/volunteers must wear clean clothes when handling food. Staff handling unwrapped food should ideally wear a clean apron or tabard.

Staffvolunteers should not wear watches or jewellery (apart from a wedding band) when preparing food.

Staff/volunteers need to have clean hair. It is best to tie hair back or suitably covered, eg. with a hat or hairnet, especially when handling unwrapped food

Staff/volunteers should be ‘fit for work’ at all times. This means they should not be suffering from, or carrying, an illness or disease that could put food safety at risk

Cleaning Effectively

Try to keep your shop/cafe/tea bar clean and tidy at all times, eg. mop up spills as soon as they happen and throw packaging away immediately.

Clean floors, counters and storage areas regularly. Clean fridges regularly. Try to transfer the food to another cold storage area while you are doing this.

Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to use cleaning chemicals carefully.

Chilling

Certain foods need to be kept chilled in order to keep them safe, including those with a ‘use by’ date and food that says ‘keep refrigerated’ on the label.

Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to position, use and maintain chilling equipment.