How to reheat leftovers and food safely to avoid the risk of food poisoning. What are the regulations on reheating food in a commercial premises? Can you freeze and reheat foods? What temperature should you reheat food to? What foods should you NOT reheat?

Answers to these and many more questions..... Read More

There is no law or regulations on how often a food hygiene certificate needs to be renewed. The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 simply state that food handlers must be ‘trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activities‘.

Environmental Health Officers do like to see that refresher training is provided regularly because knowledge and skills can become forgotten in time. Consequently the current best practice for food hygiene certificate renewal is every three years.  For more information read more

If you eat out or shop for food in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. You may have noticed the food hygiene rating scheme (fhrs) that gives a 0 to 5 rating. In Scotland you will see the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (fhis) that just has Pass, Improvement required, exempt or awaiting inspection.

This article tackles the following questions:

• What are food hygiene ratings?
• How are food hygiene ratings calculated?
• How to find out a food hygiene rating?
• How often are food hygiene ratings done?
• How do local authorities plan food business inspections?

Read More for answers to these questions

Several of the most frequently asked questions about food hygiene concern a colour coded chopping boards set. The purpose of colour coding these cutting boards is to help prevent cross contamination of foodstuffs.

Plastic chopping boards are the most usual to have colour coded but wooden chopping boards and glass or ceramic may also be colour coded. A type of food such as raw meat will have a different colour board to raw fish, cooked meats or cooked food.

For answers on what colour to use for different foodstuffs and a free downloadable chart READ MORE

This article tackles the following questions:-

• What is the law for correct temperature for frozen, fridge food storage?
• By law what is the maximum storage temperature for chilled high risk food?
• What are the proper food storage temperatures?
• Which temperature range is the danger zone for food storage?
• What are the safe food storage temperatures in a fridge?

For answers Read More

This article answers the followoing questions about setting up your own home baking business:-

• Do I need a food hygiene certificate if I intend to bake from home?
• Which setups will require registration?
• Which Food Hygiene Certification Level will I need?
• How can I get Food hygiene training?
• What is the Food hygiene rating scheme?

For answers to these questions and links to local authority self help guides ..... Read More

There are various food hygiene regulations:

• Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006
• Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013
• The General Food Regulations 2004
• Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006
• The Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006

All the regulations have a common aim. They place an obligation on all 'food businesses' to make sure that their activities are carried out hygienically. The regulations make it an offence to supply food which is unsafe to be consumed and harmful to human health.

If you break the regulations you may be fined or jailed. To find out more

Food fraud is a serious issue that affects a large number of food businesses each year. It can lead to several issues, such as harm to consumers, damage to reputation, and legal action.

To help understand food fraud, we have created an article that answers a range of key questions, such as:

• What is TACCP and VACCP?
• Why are TACCP and VACCP important?]

It also provides several recent examples of prominent food fraud cases. To view this article, click here.

HACCP, TACCP and VACCP are all food safety management systems that are designed to protect food from being contaminated. However, each of these systems cover a different part of the food production process, which raises questions such as:

• What is HACCP?
• Is HACCP a legal requirement?
• What is TACCP?
• What is the difference between TACCP and VACCP?

We have answered these questions, and more, in an article that can be viewed here.

All food businesses must have a food safety management system in place based on the principles of HACCP. To help with this, we have written an article that answers 35 frequently asked questions about HACCP, including:

• What does HACCP stand for?
• Why is HACCP used?
• What is a HACCP plan?

To view this article, click here.

In 2022, the UK government is introducing legislation that requires certain food businesses to provide calorie information for non-packaged products. We have written an article about these changes that covers key questions, such as:

• What are calories?
• What are the calorie labelling requirements?
• Why is calorie labelling important?

To view this article, click here.

Every food business must ensure that its staff are appropriately trained to make sure that they understand and are able to follow the principles of good food safety. To help understand the food safety training requirements, we have written an article that answers several frequently asked questions, including:

• Do I need a food hygiene certificate?
• What food hygiene certificate do I need?
• How do I get a food hygiene certificate?
• How often should I renew a food hygiene certificate?

To view this article, click here.

Shipping food by post is a great way for food businesses to grow. However, it must be done correctly to ensure that the food is still safe to eat and has not spoiled upon arrival. To help with this, we have created an article that answers key questions about posting food, including:

• Can you send food in the post?
• Which foods can you post?
• What are perishable foods?
• What are non-perishable foods?

To view this article, click here.

Food additives are used in food and drink for a number of reasons, including to make them look better, taste nicer, and last longer.

However, some food additives are dangerous and, as a result, there is strict legislation in place that controls which additives can be used. In this article, we explore what additives are and the legislation surrounding their use in the UK, EU and US.

Click here to view the article.

By law, all food businesses must have a HACCP-based food safety management system in place to ensure they produce food that is safe to eat. Alongside this, food businesses should also have a food defence system in place to avoid experiencing food fraud or intentional contamination.

In this article, we will outline the principles of TACCP and VACCP, and explore how to create a food defence system.

Click here to view the article.

All food businesses must ensure that their food is safe to eat and will not cause harm to consumers. To help them do so, they must have a HACCP plan in place that outlines the major hazards their business faces, and the steps that they need to take to prevent them from causing harm.

This article looks at the seven HACCP principles and outlines how to create a HACCP plan.

Click here to view the article.