Food Hygiene, you and the Law

The Law

From the 1st January 2006, new EU legislation came into effect regarding food hygiene regulations. This affects all food business operators who are now required to put into place, implement and maintain procedures based on the seven principles of HACCP.

What is HACCP?

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a food safety management system designed to assist food business operators in maintaining hygiene standards, therefore proving that they are complying with the above legislation.

There are seven basic principles of HACCP outlined below that you need to do:

1. Analyse Hazards – identify all potential hazards (microbiological, physical and chemical).

2. Identify Critical Control Points – identify the point at which a hazard could occur therefore harming the consumer.

3. Establish Critical Limits – set the parameters of the control points so that out of control activity can be identified.

4. Establish/Implement a Monitoring System to monitor the critical control points.

5. Establish Corrective Action – establish corrective action to be taken when the parameters of critical control points have been breached.

6. Establish Procedures to Verify that points 1-5 are working effectively.

7. Establish Reporting Procedures to provide evidence that the HACCP system is working effectively – these reports should be made available on request.

How Can a Temperature Monitoring System Help You With HACCP?

Enforcement

Current legislation places the responsibility on the food operator to make sure that their food is safe. HACCP has been designed to assist them in doing this.

Failure to Comply with Legislation Carries Serious Penalties

In most cases the local authority is responsible for enforcing food hygiene laws and will take action against you in order to protect the public if necessary. It is often the case that enforcement officers will inspect premises without prior notice and can ask you to produce relevant reports and documentation in order to prove due diligence.

Preliminary Enforcement actions may include:

Taking food samples

Record inspection

Written letters requesting that problems are corrected

In more serious cases, enforcement actions can involve one or more of the following:

Serving of legal notices

Serving of hygiene improvement notices

Prohibition notices

Closure of premises

Prosecution, fines and even imprisonment

To prevent any of the above, you should invest in a wireless temperature monitoring system that monitors your critical control points, alerts you when your set limits exceed their set parameters, and produces the reports you need to satisfy your local enforcing authority.

Legal Requirements

Schedule 4 of the Food Hygiene Regulations regarding Temperature Control Requirements states that foods that are likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or encourage the formation of toxins are to be held at or below 5°C or at or above 63°C (this being the danger zone).

Responsibilities of a Food Business Operator

The following specification relating to temperature monitoring has been taken from Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No.852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs.

“Food business operators shall, as appropriate, adopt the following specific hygiene measures: 3.(c) compliance with temperature control requirements for foodstuffs;”

Use a Temperature Monitoring System as Your First Form of Defence

The aspects of the law relating to temperature monitoring/control have been outlined above, however, the responsibility of proof rests with you as the food business operator. EHO’s can enter premises without notice, (at a time of day which is considered to be reasonable), and request to see audit trails and all due diligence data. It is becoming more apparent that pen and paper is just not good enough! Get an automated wireless temperature monitoring system for protection, accuracy and proof that your foods are being ‘temperature- monitored’ appropriately.

It is also necessary to highlight that there are certain foods that are exempt from temperature control and can be kept at ambient temperature if they have been treated in a certain way and their packaging remains intact .e.g. foods kept in jars, canned foods or air-dried foods. Any specific instructions on packaging should also be taken into account.

Temperature control requirements should be understood and interpreted within the general context of HACCP.

HACCP covers various aspects of food safety and hygiene of which temperature monitoring is a part. Hazards are identified and controls put into place to minimise, even eliminate the risk to the consumer.

Therefore being able to prove due diligence and have your stock and reputation protected is highly important. In addition you can run your business with the peace of mind that you are operating within the guidelines of HACCP and food safety legislation.