Food hygiene inspections

The Council's environmental health officers inspect food premises to check:

• Food is safe to eat
• The description of the food doesn't mislead the customer
• Your business is following the law
• There are no potential hazards

Environmental health officers have the right to enter and inspect a food business at all reasonable hours. They do not need to make an appointment or give notice. Officers might come on a routine inspection or because of a complaint. 

Officers are authorised to:

• Inspect the premises
• Inspect food
• Examine records (including computerised records)
• Seize food
• Take samples and photographs to be used as evidence
• Serve an 'improvement notice,' setting out things that you must do to comply
• Serve an 'emergency prohibition notice', forbidding the use of premises or equipment (this notice must be confirmed by a court)
• Recommend a prosecution (in serious cases)

The inspection

When officers visit, they must follow the Food Standards Agency's Framework Agreement on local authority food law enforcement and relevant Food Safety Act Codes of Practice. Read more on the FSA website.

Officers will show you their identification when they arrive and be polite throughout the visit. 

Feedback

Officers should always give you feedback on an inspection, including hazards they have identified and advise you about how they can be avoided.

They must also tell you whether these changes are to comply with the law or just good practice.

If you are asked to take any actions, you must be given the reasons in writing. If the officers decide that you are breaking a law, they must tell you what that law is.

Officers should give you a reasonable amount of time to make changes, except where there is an immediate risk to public health. They must also tell you how you can appeal against their actions.

Making an appeal

Every local authority must have a formal complaints procedure for its services. If you disagree with an inspector's action, contact us to try and resolve the issue. If you are still unsatisfied, you can approach the Local Authority Ombudsman.

You can appeal to the magistrates' court regarding an improvement notice or a local authority's decision not to lift an emergency prohibition order. Only the court can lift a ban on an individual.

When inspectors issue an emergency prohibition notice, they must seek court confirmation within a set time. An inspector can only condemn seized food as unfit for human consumption with the authority of a Justice of the Peace.

You have the right to attend these court hearings. If the court finds the closure or seizure improper, you are due compensation.

Alternative Enforcement Strategy

The Council no longer has to inspect every food business. It can now use an alternative enforcement strategy for low-risk businesses, typically a self-assessment questionnaire in place of a physical visit.

If you are a low-risk business and are asked to complete this questionnaire, it is in your best interest to do so. Failure to complete it may result in an officer visit.

Businesses likely to be low risk:

• Chemists selling sweets, baby food, slimming products, etc.
• Public houses that only sell drinks and confectionery
• Newsagents that only sell low-risk foods, sweets, and wrapped food items
• Off-licences
• Food businesses operating from domestic premises
• Sports and Social Clubs that only sell drinks and confectionery
• Guest Houses providing less than twenty meals a day
• Village or church halls where only occasional catering takes place
• Residential care homes providing fewer than twenty meals a day
• Some larger retailers and caterers that have been previously inspected and found to have very good food safety standards in place