Food Matters

The main laws covering food safety in the UK are derived from what is termed primary and secondary legislation.

The primary legislation in England and Wales is the Food Safety Act 1990. This is an enabling Act, and deals with the general provisions (e.g. definitions, offences, powers and defences) that are necessary to establish and maintain a national food control system.

Secondary legislation covers such things as regulations made under the primary legislation. The main/most widely applicable food safety/hygiene regulations in the UK are:

• Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995
• Food Premises (Registration) Regulations 1991
• Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995
• Changes to UK Food Safety Legislation in 2006 PDF (23 KB)

Details of all applicable food legislation can be found on the Food Law Guide on the Food Standards Agency website.

Enforcement

Food law is, for the most part, enforced by local authorities. This may be at the county or district council level, depending on the nature of the law being enforced. In general, matters relating to the fitness of food and food hygiene are dealt with by district councils (through Environmental health Officers/Food Safety Officers). Matters relating to consumer protection (e.g. labelling, compositional standards) are dealt with by county councils (through Trading Standards Officers).

Codes of Practice

Under S.40 of the Food Safety Act 1990, Ministers may issue codes of practice to guide food authorities on the execution and enforcement of the Act and secondary legislation made under it. The objective is to develop greater consistency in the standards of enforcement across the country.

A Code of Practice was issued in 2004 that consolidated previously issued codes of practice into a single volume. Food authorities are required to have regard to the Code when discharging their duties to enforce the Food Safety Act 1990 and Regulations made under it.

Industry Guides

These are voluntary guides that give advice on how to comply with the EU Food Hygiene Directive and the Regulations implementing the Directive in the UK. They provide a business sector guide to:

• compliance with the requirements of the Regulations
• practices specific to an industry sector which are generally necessary to secure the safety and wholesomeness of food

Where a food business is clearly following advice in a recognised Guide, this must be given due consideration by enforcers when assessing compliance with the requirements of the Regulations. However, there is no legal requirement that every member of the food industry must follow the Guides – it would still be possible for a food business to demonstrate to enforcers that it was complying with the Regulations in some other ways i.e. although Guides set out recommended means of achieving compliance other, alternative means may be possible.

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