Food Safety Enforcement Policy

It is this Council's aim to ensure that food and drink consumed within the district is safe for human consumption.

The Council's Enforcement Policy sets out rules for food safety officers to ensure that action taken is proportionate and is applied in a consistent and fair manner.

Food Law Enforcement

Council food safety officers enforce a wide range of legislation that sets out the hygiene standards expected of food handlers and the buildings in which food is prepared or served. To do this they carry out unannounced inspections of all food businesses and investigate complaints.

Where the law is not being complied with, they have a wide range of powers to put things right. These range from informal advice and written and verbal warnings, through legal notices requiring improvements, to prosecution and even closure where there is an imminent risk of injury to health. Which power is used depends on number of things:

• the seriousness of the offence (and the risk to health it presents)
• the past history of compliance by the food business operator
• the willingness to put things right in a sensible period of time

Enforcement officers will discuss any contraventions at the end of their inspection and listen to explanations and plans. We will try to resolve matters informally in the first instance. This is done by giving advice, usually in writing, on what needs to be done and then giving a reasonable time to put things right.

Where there are major repairs required, or where food may be contaminated, or if we think you won't do the work willingly, we will serve a hygiene improvement notice, which is a legal letter that must be complied with. A notice will state what is wrong, what needs to be done and will give a sensible time to do the work. If you don't agree with the notice you can appeal to a senior officer in the first instance and ultimately to the Magistrate's Court.

Where there appears to be a serious risk to health we will consider prosecution and premises closure. These powers are only authorised by senior officers following very strict rules that are detailed in the full Enforcement Policy.

Environmental Health

E-mail:

environmental.health
@thanet.gov.uk 

Tel: 01843 577580

Fax: 01843 290906