Safer food, better business in East Lindsey
Food hygiene legislation has changed - new requirements came into force on January 1st 2006 that affect food businesses. In particular there is one major new requirement …
The new food laws bring together and extend the requirements of the current UK food hygiene laws, but here’s the important bit – if you run a food business you will need to have a documented food safety management system. In other words, you will need to say what you do to make food that is safe to eat and have this written down.
The amount of documentation you will need will be related to the type of food you prepare/handle and the risks presented by your business. A full Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system is more suited to food manufacturers who produce larger amounts of similar foods. This system doesn't easily work in catering such as a restaurant or pub kitchen where the menu continually changes and is made up of lots of different menu items, and many people have had difficulty in understanding it.
We therefore needed to consider how these smaller food businesses comply with these new requirements without introducing an unnecessary burden. Following extensive consultation with the catering industry the Food Standards Agency has developed Safer food, better business (SFBB).
Don’t panic! Safer food, better business is here…
Safer food, better business (SFBB) is a simple fact sheet system that shows how to ensure that the major potential hazards in catering business can be safely controlled, namely those to do with the 4’C’s’:
Cross-Contamination 
Cleaning 
Chilling 
Cooking
SFBB is designed to be simple, and can easily be made to fit your catering business. Each SFBB pack is split into five sections containing a number of fact sheets called ‘Safe Methods’. Typical safe methods would include instructions on “Cooking Food Safely” and “Reheating” for example. The idea is that you look at the pack and decide which safe methods apply to your business, and then follow them. There are about twenty methods in total covering aspects of the '4Cs', but not all of them will apply to all businesses.
A simple diary is also provided, for appropriate record keeping. This also includes a four-weekly review to ensure that the document remains up-to-date and to allow common problems to be identified and addressed. So, from 1 January 2006, you will need to have a documented food safety management system – it doesn't have to be SFBB but any alternative may involve a lot of work for you if you do not already have such a system in place.
For more information, and a free SFBB pack follow the links/contacts below:
Our Commercial Team will be running FREE half-day seminars on how to use the SFBB at venues around the district in the near future.
To find out more, please telephone or email Mike Harrison, Commercial Team Leader on 01507 329417 or mike.harrison@e-lindsey.gov.uk
