Food Hygiene – What The Law States

Since 1 January 2006, several new food hygiene regulations were introduced in the UK.

Three important laws that affect your business are:

• The Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013
• Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs.
• The Food Hygiene (England) (No 2) Regulations 2005 (and equivalent regulations in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland).

These laws were introduced to replace the existing Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 and the Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995. These laws define the basic hygiene requirements for all aspects of your business, varying from staff personal hygiene, food handling and preparation to your business premises and facilities.

The majority of the requirements stated in the new laws are identical to the regulations they have replaced. The most significant change is the requirement to now demonstrate what you do to make or retail food that is safe to eat and that these processes are documented in a written formal policy.

These rules and regulations will affect you differently depending on the nature of your business. However they can generally be divided into two categories:

• Rules that affect a food business – the employer
• Rules that affect a food handler – the employee