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There are various legislations involved with the preparation and sale of food, complying with this legislation is very important although sometimes they are difficult to understand ignorance is no excuse.

Most of our legislation comes from the European Union in the form of regulations or directives. An EU regulation has to be implemented by member countries without modification whereas EU directives require member countries to introduce their own legislation to meet the objectives of the directive.

We cannot on a course like this cover all the requirements of food hygiene legislation but in this video and others, we will look at the legislation and how it is implemented in food businesses. 

The two main acts involved are: 

“The Food Regulations Act 1990” and “The Food Hygiene Regulations Act 2006”

The Food Regulations Act 1990 is the most important regulation we have to follow, this covers the production of food all the way through to the sale, preparation and cooking of food.

It covers where the food has originated, the labelling and consumption of food, all contact materials and other food pieces of stuff that have come into contact with the food, food hygiene and also looks at whether the food is fit for human consumption and the inspection and control of likely causes of poisoning. The registration and control of food premises and ensure that premises have good training and certify employees for handling foodstuffs.

It looks at the dairy industry and milk production and other foodstuffs that have derived from it. It looks at markets, shops and restaurants and the storage of food and looks at any new control methods for the production and processing of food.

The fines for non-compliance can be up to £20,000 and 6 months in prison so we need to make sure that the regulations are followed.

The Food Hygiene Regulations Act 2006 covers the inspection and maintenance of food establishments, these regulation give environmental officers the power to go in and inspect food premises and issue improvement notices and close down premises in extreme cases.

There are other acts that food establishments need to consider, these could be “The Health & Safety at Work act 1974”, “First Aid Regulation 1981”. Some of them are specific to the food industry others are general health and safety.

Any workplace must make sure that all members of staff and people visiting the premises are kept safe, especially within the food area that they’re not going to have anything in the food that will cause problems.