Food safety advice for businesses after fines handed out

Swansea Council is backing the Food Standards Agency (FSA) campaign running throughout June, starting with ‘World Food Safety Day’ which was recently held (June 7).

Reports from local authorities indicate that food hygiene inspectors have observed significant drops in compliance by food businesses since the pandemic. Particular areas of concern include cleaning, pest control, food safety management and food substitution issues linked to allergies.

The FSA has responded to this by launching their campaign, urging food businesses to do all they can to ensure food is safe for consumers.

In Swansea, during the height of the pandemic in November 2020, Trading Standards Officers carried out a series of test purchases from food takeaway establishments. During the test purchases, a number of establishments were caught out, selling food which contained milk products, where the test purchaser had disclosed that they suffered from milk allergies.

The council-led exercise resulted in four Swansea-based takeaways facing fines and costs of more than £19,000 in total.

David Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Performance in Swansea Council, said: “During the height of the pandemic, many sit-down restaurants were closed and so consumers made more use of takeaway businesses. We wanted to ensure that these businesses were operating safely and making sure they were complying with current food safety regulations.

“In general, most were, and continue to act responsibly. However, a number of businesses we conducted test purchases with, fell short of regulations, ignoring allergies disclosed by the consumer and knowingly selling them food which could have serious implications when consumed.

“These businesses have been dealt with through our enforcement procedures and hopefully they are now better informed of what needs to be done in future.”

As well as carrying out test purchases of food items, the Council’s Food Safety Team regularly works with businesses, conducting inspections of premises to ensure food preparation and storage meet national food hygiene standards.

Nathan Barnhouse, Director of FSA in Wales said: “Many food businesses already meet good standards of hygiene, and we know this is important to consumers who want to feel confident that the food they choose won’t make them ill.

“Food safety issues like food poisoning and incidents of undeclared allergens, can cause unnecessary suffering for individuals, as well as impacting on their families.  We work in collaboration with Swansea Council who support businesses and help them understand the regulatory requirements.”