Food hygiene and the law
Food hygiene and the law
(Food hygiene: a guide for businesses)
Food premises must be clean and be in good repair and condition.
There must be suitable and sufficient hand washing facilities, facilities for washing food and equipment and for storing food.
You must have a 'Food Safety Management System'.
Food handlers must have suitable training and be 'fit to work'.
Further details can be found in the :
Food Safety Management System
Food Safety Management Procedures based on the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) must be in place.
If you have food that needs to be kept cold you need to write your procedures down and keep records to show your checks.
These only need to be simple if you have a small business. See:
- Safer Food Better Business for Caterers - on the Food Standards Agency website
- Safer Food Better Business for Retailers - on the Food Standards Agency website
E.Coli
Food Businesses must take steps to control the risk of food being contaminated by E.Coli 0157. Please see:
Training
Food handlers must be supervised and trained in food hygiene to a level that is appropriate for the work that they do.
Although it is not a legal requirement to attend a formal course, many food businesses find that this is the best way to ensure that their staff gain the knowledge required, in addition to on the job training.
The Chartered Institue of Environmental Health (CIEH) list courses:
Fitness to work
Staff must not handle food or enter a food handling area if they:
- are suffering from, or carrying, a disease likely to be transmitted via food
- have diarrhoea and/or vomiting
- have infected wounds, skin infections or sores
For more information see:
Food composition and labelling - Trading Standards
You can find out about Food Law Enforcement and Food Composition and Labelling by contacting West Sussex County Council's Trading Standards service:
For further information please see also:
Pest control
Food premises must be pest proofed and food businesses must carry out regular checks for food pests such as rats, mice, cockroaches and flying insects.
For more information see pest control.
Imported food
If you wish to import food into the country please follow the link for more information:
Waste management
Food businesses should have closable containers for the storage of waste and arrange to have it regularly removed by an authorised waste carrier. For details of the Council’s service for commercial premises please see:
For the disposal of animal by-products including raw meat from butchers shops please see:
Business support and advice
We want your business to be successful and recommend that you speak to our Economic Development team before you finalise your plans. They can give business support and advice.
For further information see our business support and advice section.
Need assistance? Get in touch:
Public Health & Regulation
Page last updated: 24 April 2019