Legal surgery
Graeme Cushion, partner at licensing solicitors Poppleston
Allen, answers more of your food legislation questions
Q I operate a pub/restaurant in a village location. While I am fortunate enough
not to have been directly affected by the recent floods, I have experienced intermittent problems with our toilets, which do not flush properly or at all.
The water supply to the kitchen itself seems to be unaffected. I am concerned that the problems with the toilets present issues for staff and customers alike. What should I do?
Graeme says: Under health and safety legislation and associated regulations you are under a duty to provide suitable and adequate sanitary accommodation for staff and customers alike.
Clearly, if your toilets will not flush, then there is a potential risk to health for anyone attending the premises. The fact that the water supply is in some way interrupted and that the toilets do not work properly, does
not of itself mean that you should close your business until the problems are rectified. If you are able to find an alternative means of providing the necessary sanitary accommodation, that ought to suffice.
If you are able to purchase some large bottles of water, then you could deploy a staff member to act as toilet attendant and manually fill the cisterns each time the toilets are used. This, combined with a good system of cleaning, should make sure that the accommodation remains adequate and sanitary.
If that is not viable, then you will need to consider whether toilet facilities can be provided sufficiently nearby so that your staff and customers can use them.
Portaloos could be placed in the car park, if there is no adjacent building or business with facilities you can use and which are not similarly affected by water problems.
Clearly, if none of these solutions can be achieved, then you may have to consider closing your business until such time as the problem has been rectified.
Q I run a restaurant in a busy town centre. One of my customers has apparently complained to the local council that the 12oz steak that I served him the other night was clearly underweight. What should I do?
Graeme says: You may well get a visit from the local environmental health officer to check on the uncooked weights of any such produce that you have stored ready to cook.
Obviously, if you are advertising to customers that the steak, or other such item, is of a particular weight it must be so, otherwise the customer is paying a stated price for something that turns out to be less than they had expected.
This can lead to potential offences under the Food Safety Act and Trade Descriptions Act. A relatively high fine is likely in the Magistrates' Court. You would also end up with a criminal record.
You will need to demonstrate that you have done everything you can to prevent the commission of the offence.
This means that you should have regular checks in place to make sure that items are of the requisite weight, and also that relevant staff members have been trained to understand the importance of complying with the legislation.
If you run into trouble and are invited for an interview under caution, then you would be best advised to seek immediate legal advice.
