Food Standards Agency: Food Safety Management System

The food industry is made up of a large proportion of small businesses, from production through to retail and catering. Food safety is of paramount importance, and so legislators need to maintain high standards, whilst taking account of the fact that small firms will make up a large proportion of businesses which will need to comply with the regulation. This has meant that the Food Standards Agency has had to be proactive in ensuring that legislation is designed with the needs of small business in mind from the early stages.

The challenge: EC food hygiene Regulations, introduced in 2006, require all food businesses to implement documented food safety management systems based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points). This means being aware of all the food safety hazards in their food operations and having systems in place to control them. Recognising the potential impact this legislation would have on small businesses, the Agency negotiated flexibility in Europe to allow proportionate food safety approaches for small businesses and minimise the impact of the new Regulation on them.

The approach: The Agency then worked directly with small businesses and other stakeholders to develop an innovative and practical scheme to help small food businesses comply with the new food hygiene regulations. A range of simple, easy to use information packs, including an interactive coaching DVD with voiceovers in 16 languages, forms the basis of the Safer food, better business (SFBB) programme. SFBB is underpinned by the risk-based HACCP approach so that a business using the packs correctly, complies with the law.

Talking to Small Businesses: The development of the SFBB approach was tested directly with 50 small caterers in and around Manchester to check that the approach was suitable for small business needs and user-friendly and get direct feedback from them on suggested improvements. Trained mentors visited the businesses in their premises to help businesses use the pack, identify practical approaches to food safety management and consider what would actually improve standards and change behaviour in their business.

Piloting our scheme: After the initial development, an early version of SFBB was piloted in over 1,000 businesses in 20 local authorities in England, again interacting with managers and their staff. As a response to small business and local authority feedback further products, for example, for Chinese cuisine, were all developed with relevant businesses and their representative organisations. The pilot highlighted the need to emphasise practical good hygiene practice with pictures that could be used to train staff. The SFBB packs follow the 4Cs from the Agency’s multi-media Food Hygiene Campaign: Cooking, Chilling, Cross-Contamination & Cleaning. Building on current knowledge in this way gave SFBB a firm foundation and strong branding.

The pilot exercise also considered the most effective interventions with businesses, and provided the evidence base for a major small business support programme, involving local authorities, providing training and 1:1 coaching in business premises.

For more information, visit: http://www.food.gov.uk