Everybody who sells or serves food to customers must ensure food safety. It is crucial that the food sold does not endanger public health, therefore adequate control systems must be in place by law. In the UK and the EU, food safety requirements are clearly identified in legislation (EC) 852/2004, which is designed to ensure food is produced safely and hygienically. This regulation is set out in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which means that Regulation (EC) 852/2004 still applies in the UK since Brexit, as the UK Government created something called “retained EU legislation”, which ensured that the EU laws which applied to the UK before 11pm on 31 December 2020 could be kept in place.
The HACCP process (General Principles of Food Hygiene. CXC 1-1969) is used by the food industry to prevent the spread of foodborne diseases. It has become the universally recognised and accepted method for food safety assurance. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognised its importance in preventing foodborne diseases for over 20 years and has played an important role in its development and promotion. HACCP stands for the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system, and is a proactive process control system that identifies where hazards might occur in the food production process and puts into place stringent preventative actions to take to stop the hazards from occurring. By strictly monitoring and controlling each step of the process, there is less chance for hazards to occur. In other words, it is basically a risk assessment approach that ensures that the end product, food, is ready for consumption and is safe to eat. HACCP is intended for use in all segments of the food industry from growing, harvesting, processing, manufacturing, distributing and merchandising, to preparing food for consumption. Each segment of the food industry must provide the conditions necessary to protect food while it is under their control. HACCP is designed so that it can be used at any and all stages of the food production process. There are two key components of HACCP:
The first stage is to assemble a team of individuals who have specific knowledge and expertise about the product and process. The size of the team and their areas of responsibility will depend upon the business. The team may also benefit from input from outside expert consultants, for example about potential biological, chemical, allergenic and/or physical hazards. These experts will not be permanent members of the HACCP team.
The HACCP team provides a general description of the food, ingredients and processing methods. Then the method of distribution should be described along with information on whether the food is to be distributed frozen, refrigerated or at ambient temperature.
The team then describes the normal expected use of the food. The intended consumers may be, for example, the general public or a particular segment of the population such as babies or infants, immunocompromised individuals or the elderly.
The flow diagram should provide a clear, simple outline of all the steps involved in the process that are directly under the control of the establishment. The flow diagram can also include steps in the food chain which come before and after the processing that occurs on the premises.
The HACCP team should perform an on-site review of the operation to verify the accuracy and completeness of the flow diagram, and modifications should be made to the diagram as required.
After these first five preliminary steps have been completed, the following seven principles of HACCP are applied.
The first step is to identify any hazards (what could go wrong) to food safety and the level of the risk of them happening i.e. low, medium or high.
In this step, identify those points in the process where controls can be used to minimise, eliminate or reduce the effect of the hazard, and decide what action needs to be taken if something goes wrong.
This HACCP principle is focused on setting critical limits for each CCP that has been determined, helping to keep them within acceptable levels. Critical limits may be based upon factors such as:
Once what to measure has been established, this HACCP principle is all about determining how and when to measure the CCPs, making sure that the procedures are being followed and are working.
These are the safety protocols that can immediately be put into action when required when any CCP measurement has exceeded a critical limit for a particular hazard. Corrective actions should:
Verification involves all activities, other than monitoring, that establish the validity of the HACCP plan and ensure that the HACCP system is operating according to it. Among others, these include designating team members to oversee specific activities, appropriately scheduled validation activities, etc. Information needed to validate the HACCP plan often includes:
Accurate record-keeping is required to ensure traceability and to prove, should a food safety incident happen, that the business has taken all reasonable precautions to produce food safely and that procedures are working and being followed. Usually, the records kept for the HACCP process should include:
These are the steps that need to be taken to manage food safety risks in any food business. The HACCP plan is a “living document”, meaning it must be regularly reviewed and updated as appropriate.
Microbiological – for example:
The best way to prevent microbiological hazards from affecting customers is to implement robust processing and storage strategies. The use of packaging technologies during processing like vacuum sealing hinders bacterial growth. Proper temperature management for storage can dramatically reduce microbe growth, and effective sanitation practices throughout the distribution chain will reduce cross-contamination of food products
Similar to preventing biological hazards, proper cleaning procedures and sanitation requirements are the best methods of prevention. Training employees to follow strict guidelines is essential in preventing a chemical hazard, as well as limiting the use of chemicals to those generally recognised as safe and ensuring that chemicals are stored in designated areas separated from food products.
Prevention of physical hazards focuses primarily on thorough inspection of food, and strict adherence to food safety regulations, such as HACCP. Businesses should take proactive steps in eliminating the potential of a physical hazard with, for example, equipment maintenance, appropriate dress codes and PPE.
Prevention of allergenic hazards focuses on cross-contamination and correct food labelling. This also applies to additives, processing aids and any other substances which are present in the final product.
The Food Safety Act 1990 is primarily concerned with food standards and definitions, including quality, composition, labelling and presentation. As previously mentioned, Regulation (EC) 852/2004, familiarly known as the HACCP Law, contains the general hygiene requirements for all food businesses. Domestic regulations for each country in the UK have been drawn up and implemented to support it including:
The government website states that “If you run a food business, you must have a plan based on the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. You might be inspected, and the inspector will need to see your records.” The food business operator (FBO) is the natural or legal person responsible for ensuring that the requirements of the law are met within the food business under their control.
Food safety law requires all food handlers to be trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their duties. This means that food handlers must receive food safety training that is relevant to their work and duties. It is generally accepted that although a formal qualification is not required, all food handlers should be trained to a minimum of Level 2/foundation, supervisors to Level 3/intermediate and managers to Level 4/managing food safety. Anyone who has responsibility for implementing and maintaining food safety management systems (HACCP) should receive specific training for this. Enforcement officers will ask to see evidence of food hygiene training and if it is insufficient, an improvement notice may be served, and the hygiene rating would be affected.
Food is prohibited to be placed on the market if it is unsafe: because it has been rendered injurious to health or is unfit for human consumption. The Food Safety Act 1990 describes the offence of rendering food injurious to health as “it is unfit to eat, or so contaminated that it would be unreasonable to expect anyone to eat it”. It is also an offence for anyone to do anything to food that would make it harmful to health, even if that person is not running a food business. Offences that relate to food quality and content include selling food that is not of the “nature, substance or quality” demanded by the consumer. It is also an offence to falsely describe, advertise or present food. Food may be perfectly fit to eat and of the appropriate quality, but may not be described fairly or accurately, and is therefore likely to mislead the purchaser.
According to the Sentencing Council UK, for offences under the General Food Regulations, the maximum penalty when tried summarily, that is in a Magistrates Court, is an unlimited fine and/or 6 months’ custody. When tried on indictment, that is in a Crown Court, the maximum penalty is an unlimited fine and/or 2 years’ custody. The offence culpability ranges are:
The magistrates will also take into consideration the harm or potentiality to harm when applying penalties and/or sentencing. They also take aggravating factors into consideration such as:
In all cases the court will consider whether to make ancillary orders. These may include:
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for the official control of food. Enforcement functions are delegated mainly to local authorities, where environmental health practitioners (EHPs) regulate food hygiene and safety legislation and Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) regulate those relating to food standards and labelling. Both EHPs and TSOs advise upon new designs and structures of businesses as well as product safety and description. Enforcements for hygiene matters detailed in Regulation (EC) 852/2004 are set down in the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 (and associated regulations for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and include:
Local authorities are required to make sure that:
The FSA annual report (2019/2020) on Food Hygiene found that the percentage of food establishments across three UK countries (this report does not cover Scotland) achieving broad compliance or higher was 90.4% compared with 90.7% in the previous year. In Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) terms, ‘broadly compliant’ is equivalent to a hygiene rating of 3 (generally satisfactory) or above. In England there was a decrease from 90.4% to 90%. In Wales there was a decrease from 93.1% to 92.7%. In Northern Ireland there was an increase from 94.1% to 95.4%. Enforcement Actions:
The use of HACCP by the food industry offers a number of benefits as it:
Although this does not mean that HACCP provides 100% assurance of food safety to consumers, it does mean that a food business is doing the best job possible for safe food production. |