Food Safety

Food safety is governed by both European and UK legislation that impose a range of requirements on food safety, traceability, presentation, import, export, withdrawal, and recall.

A wide range of food safety information is available through these web pages and from other agencies for both consumers and businesses, that should help provide a better understanding of food safety requirements.

Should you require additional help and advice please contact the Food Safety Public Protection team using the contact details provided on the right.

All businesses which produce, process, distribute or sell food must meet certain food safety criteria. These criteria apply even when food is given away free, so can also apply to organisations such as sports and social clubs, school PTAs, Childminders, and charities.

The video clip in Related Articles in the right hand menu helps give an overview of food safety criteria and the role of the Council's Food Safety Inspectors. A transcript of the video is available from the right hand menu.

'Scores on the Doors' - The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

The Council has signed up to the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme to help improve food hygiene standards in food businesses and to help raise customer awareness. More details about the scheme and its implementation are available from the FSA's web pages. Use the link in the related media section on the right to see a short video that will give you an overview of the scheme. For more specific information, use the links to find out more about ratings or to look at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in the related links section on the right.

All food businesses are now rated in accordance with this scheme as part of the inspection process, and, after a short delay for safeguarding purposes, their ratings are published on the FSA's national website. To look up the food hygiene ratings of food businesses within Bexley, use the link in the related links section on the right.

The national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme includes safeguards to ensure fairness to businesses. This includes an appeals procedure, for when the food business operator considers the rating to be unjust; a right of reply procedure, to allow the food business operator to provide an explanation of actions taken since receiving their food hygiene rating to deal with any problems found at the premises, and an ability to request a re-inspection after necessary improvements have been made. Details of these safeguards and how they work can be found in the FAQ section of the Food Standards Agency website. Links to the Appeals, Right to Reply, and Request a Re-visit forms are available in the related links section on the right. If you are looking for a form on behalf of someone who does not have internet access you can download and print copies of the Appeal, Right to Reply, and Request a Revisit forms from the related media section on the right. All forms should be returned for the attention of the Food Team as shown in the related contacts section on the right.

We know that not all of our eligible food businesses have been given ratings yet. This is because we have limited the extent to which we have relied on historical records in order to make sure that published ratings are as accurate as possible. Rest assured though that we will be working hard to extend the rating scheme to include these un-rated food businesses as quickly as we can.