FOOD HYGIENE

Food hygiene

Food hygiene

A Food safety Program which is intended to prevent food poisoning by following safe food preparation practices; this involves taking measures necessary to ensure the safety and wholesomeness of food during purchasing, receiving, storing, cooking, transporting, reheating and service. A Food safety is a program developed to control food safety problems and ensure that the food served is safe to eat. It is based upon the principles of HACCP. It involves looking at the food preparation and service operation step by step from the selection of ingredients right through to the service of the food to the customer. By carefully analyzing each step of the food preparation and service operation anything that may affect the safety of the food is identified and controlled. Food safety helps in ensuring that food is safe at all times and the risk of food poisoning is minimized / prevented.

UK food safety regulatory strategies

The factors affecting SME compliance with legislation impact upon the types of regulatory strategies that will be most effective in meeting food safety objectives. In the UK, the Food Safety Act 1990 (“the Act”) is the primary Act governing food safety. Its main objective is to ensure the safety of food intended for sale for human consumption. Many regulations have been made to supplement the broad provisions set out within the Act. Regulations made under section 16 of the Act deal with hygiene in food premises generally and in a range of specific food manufacturing premises. The Act and accompanying regulations are based around both prescriptive 'command and control' requirements and self-regulatory approaches. Prescriptive requirements set out well-defined standards with which the business proprietor is expected to comply.6

The second regulatory approach is that of self-regulation.7 A form of self-regulation has emerged, known as 'enforced' self-regulation whereby the government compels companies to form a set of rules tailored to the unique set of contingencies facing that company which are then approved (or rejected) by an enforcing agency. This agency monitors whether these internalised rules are being adhered to Braithwaite (1982, p. 1470). This strategy was introduced into the regulation of food safety by the concept of 'hazard analysis'.8 Proprietors do not have to document their hazard analysis, although may form part of the 'due diligence defence' if undertaken.9 The influence of the European Commission has been to move towards this self-assessment approach in recent years, including a recent recommendation to adopt HACCP principles within all food businesses.10

UK food safety enforcement strategies

Two broad strategies have been identified in dealing with non-compliance: 'compliance' and 'deterrence' strategies. These are defined as: “The principal objective of a compliance law enforcement system is to secure conformity with the law by means of insuring compliance or by taking action to prevent potential law violations without the necessity to detect, process and penalize violators. The principal objective of deterrence law enforcement systems is to secure conformity with law by detecting violations of law, determining who is responsible for their violation, and penalizing violators to deter ...