Introduction
Making sure the food you serve is safe for your customers is just as important as making sure the food tastes good. Rules about food safety are important to keep both businesses and people safe from possible health risks. Not following the rules can get you fines, legal problems, and, worst of all, hurt your customers. We’ll go over some important rules and best practices that every food business should follow to keep food safety regulations high in this guide.
Some general rules
The main goal of the General Food Law is to protect people’s health and the rights of consumers when it comes to food. It covers all stages of growing, preparing, and distributing food and feed, with a few small exceptions. As a result, food companies must follow the laws that protect feed and food.
Your main goal should be to:
- People can safely eat the food you serve.
- Food should be sold exactly as it is described and promoted in terms of quality and content. The food trade should be fair, and the health and well-being of animals, plants, and the environment should be taken into account.
Here are the most important things to think about:
Cleanliness
Regulation EC 852/2004 spells out the basic hygiene rules that food businesses must follow when it comes to their employees, buildings, and how they handle food.
It says you should put in place the rules needed to make sure the food is cooked safely so that you don’t put your customers at risk. You need to:
- Make sure your building and tools are clean and in good working order.
- have enough light, air flow, and drainage
- have good ways of cleaning, getting rid of pests, and throwing away trash
- teach your workers how to properly dress and take care of their bodies.
- have rules to stop cross-contamination
Find the Risks and Reduce Them
Finding possible dangers that could put food safety at risk is another important thing you should do. Microbiological, physical, and chemical hazards are all covered in the HACCP. It tells you how to keep your food from getting contaminated.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is what HACCP stands for. It is used at every step of the food production process to make sure it is safe until it is ready to be eaten. Here are the most important rules to follow:
- Do a study of the risks.
- Find the important control points (CCPs).
- Set key limits for control points that are very important.
- Come up with ways to watch.
- Put restorative steps in place.
- Come up with a way to check.
- Set up rules for saving records and paperwork
Changing the temperature
The Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 say that certain foods need to be kept at a certain temperature to stop dangerous germs from growing. Food that isn’t stored or kept at the right temperature may go bad, which can be bad for your health in many ways. Because of this, you need to keep foods at the right temperature so that those things don’t happen.
When you store foods that need to stay hot, remember to keep them at least 63 degrees Celsius degrees. On the other hand, things that need to be kept cool should be kept at 8 degrees Celsius or less, ideally at degrees Celsius or less. Last but not least, frozen foods should be kept between -18 and -24 degrees Celsius.
To keep the quality of temperature-sensitive foods until they are eaten, you need to learn how to store them safely and also how to ship them safely.
Traceability of Food
Food safety depends on being able to track food. It makes it easy to keep an eye on the safety and quality of food items all along the supply chain. Besides that, it makes people trust your goods more.
To make sure you can track your food, you should keep records of all the companies that give you raw materials and the companies that buy your food or goods. The following should be on these:
- Supplier’s name and address (or the address of the business you’re supporting).
- What kind of goods and how many there are
- Date of transaction or delivery
- Number of the batch and any bills or records for food bought
Make sure that these records are always up-to-date and can be used for checks of food safety. This could help people in the supply chain talk to each other better.
Food Labelling and Taking Back or Calling Back Dangerous Food
Another important part of the General Food Law Regulation (EC) 178/2002 is food marking. You will need to be as specific as possible with your goods so that they don’t give people false information. Your health could be at risk because of one false piece of information. So, the labels must tell your customers about the product’s nutritional value, possible allergens, and the products that went into making it. Follow this as a help.
Moreover, you need to take away any harmful food and let the FSA know if you do offer it to your customers. Then, don’t forget to be honest and let people know why that food was taken off the market or recalled. Read the rules about food events, recalls, and products that are taken off the market.
Set up a system for managing food safety.
Lastly, if you own a food business, you need to set up a food safety management system right away. Every step of the way food is prepared and made must be looked at to see what could go wrong and what needs to be done to make sure the food is safe for your customers. Software for the delivery line can help you with this.
The Food Safety Standards Regulations Agency also made a “Safer Food, Better Business” pack to help you follow different laws and improve how you handle food safety. For more information, you can go to the website of the Food Standards Agency.
In conclusion:
Following rules about food safety is not only the law, but also an important part of building a reliable and successful food business. You protect your customers and your image by keeping things clean, lowering risks, making sure things can be tracked, and labelling and storing things correctly. Remember that a kitchen that is safe is a kitchen that works well. Serve safety, serve success!
