Legal advice: FSA's food safety inspections stats published

The Food Standards Agency has recently published the annual statistics for 2005-2006 food safety inspections carried out by local council environmental health teams.

Approximately 300,000 food premises were inspected in England last year. Of those some 128,000 were found to be committing food safety law infringements. Some of these would have been minor contraventions, but many would have been serious defects and malpractices leading to enforcement notices being served.

The days when the local authority served you with a letter or enforcement notice discreetly so that no-one (that is your customers) knew about it are fading fast.

We now have the Freedom of Information Act - and people are entitled to know what actions local authorities have taken on a whole range of issues. And more importantly, we have Scores on the Doors.

This is the scheme whereby local authorities publish the results of their inspections by requiring the establishment to display an inspection rating certificate on the premises (the score on the door) or the council publishes the scores on its website.

I've just looked through my local council's Scores on the Doors website and checked out a couple of well-known High Street pub operators. I don't think I'll be having my Indian take-away from my usual restaurant in future, nor will I eat in a number of well-known High Street pubs judged to have poor hygiene standards.

So, what should you be doing to ensure you meet the requirements of food safety law sufficiently well to display a score on the door of four or five? (0 to two is poor, three is good, four is very good and five is excellent).

Food safety

What are the main hazards?

• poor temperature controls
• inadequately reheated foods
• foods left out at ambient temperatures
• inadequate cooking - failing to reach 75ºC
• keeping food past its 'use-by' date
• poor personal hygiene practices
• cross-contamination from raw foods to cooked foods
• poor standards of cleanliness
• pest infestations
• reheating foods more than once.

Eliminating hazards

Food poisoning is not inevitable and by following some simple food safety rules you can be confident that your food operation will be both a gastronomic delight and safe for customers.

In effect, you can think of the six Ps:

• preventing contamination
• preventing dirty premises
• proper temperature controls
• personal hygiene
• pest prevention
• proper practices and procedures in cooking.

Preventing contamination

• keep raw and cooked foods separate.
• store raw foods below cooked foods in the fridge
• disinfect or sanitise work surfaces
• use different coloured chopping boards for different food preparation
• keep foods covered
• look out for foreign objects that could fall into foods.

Preventing dirty premises

• clean as you go
• move equipment and clean underneath it and behind it
• wipe down walls
• use a disinfectant, degreaser or detergent, or sanitiser
• clean down at the end of the day
• devise cleaning schedules and stick to them.

Proper temperature controls

• keep foods cold - below 8ºC, or even below 5ºC
• make sure fridges work at temperatures between 1 to 4ºC
• cook foods thoroughly - above 75ºC
• keep foods hot - above 63ºC.

Personal hygiene

Proper hand washing is the key to good food hygiene - use hot water, soap, nailbrush and paper towels

• don't cough, sneeze or spit over food
• wear protective over-clothing
• don't wear jewellery.

Pest prevention

• keep flies out of the kitchen
• use a fly screen or insectocutor
• put pest-proofing strips on doors
• watch out for mice droppings and cockroaches
• keep food rooms clean
• move stock regularly to clean
• keep drains clean and disinfected.

Proper practices and procedures in cooking

• implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) - that is, identify hazards and control them
• cook food thoroughly and serve immediately
• do not keep food at ambient temperatures for more than four hours
• sanitise work surfaces regularly
• cook foods when needed - not too far in advance
• do not reheat foods more than once
• defrost foods thoroughly
• cool foods rapidly, within 90 minutes and put in the fridge
• keep temperature records
• do not use food past its 'use-by' date
• throw away food when out of date
• keep records of what you do for 'due diligence'.