Environmental and Enforcement Services

Food Business and Food Safety

There are over 1,000 food premises in Barking and Dagenham including 33 food manufacturers. Our Food Safety Team is responsible for ensuring that food sold in the borough is safe, clean and fit to eat.

All premises that prepare, produce, cook or sell food must comply with strict hygiene standards. All food businesses are required to register with us by law.

Important new food law|

On 1 January 2006 a new food hygiene legislation that will affect you and your business came into force. You will need to know how Safer Food, Better Business, a simple fact sheet system that tells you how to eliminate potential hazards in your catering business, will help you.

Investigating complaints|

Name and shame - Successful prosecutions|

Food Safety fact sheets|

Food and agriculture|

Online request or complaint form|

Frequently asked questions|

Food Alerts

The Food Standards Agency issue food alerts to tell local authorities and consumers about potential problems associated with food they may have been bought or food that is being sold.

Consultants in Communicable Disease Control, Trading Standards Officers and food trade organisations are also informed.

Food alerts are issued under 2 categories:

Food alerts: For action; and
Food alerts: For information

Some food alerts will require food businesses to take the products off the market and would be issued in conjunction with a product withdrawal or recall by a manufacturer, retailer or distributor and in store notices for customers.

Scores on the Doors

Barking and Dagenham, in conjunction with the Food Standards Agency and other local authorities in London have launched a new pilot project, called 'Scores on the Doors'. This scheme will allow you to see how well a business manages food safety, based on the results of the last inspection of the business.

Hazard Analysis

A hazard analysis asks you to think logically about what might go wrong with the food that you sell and what you must do to ensure it is safe for your customers. It is based on food safety practices that you will already be familiar with.

A hazard analysis will help to prevent problems rather than reacting to them after they have happened.

Why do a Hazard Analysis?

It is legal requirement for all food businesses
If your business is taken to court you may be able to demonstrate that you had exercised diligence through arrangements in place to prevent an offence being committed
It helps ensure food is safe for customers to eat

We are responsible for:

Food hygiene inspections

We routinely inspect all registered food businesses in Barking and Dagenham.

Food standards inspections

We check on the quality, composition, labelling, presentation and advertising of food and materials or articles in contact with food, for example food packaging.

Food complaints

We deal with complaints about food such as foreign bodies in food/drinks from members of the public. Some complaints come from people who become ill after eating out and believe they may have contracted food poisoning.

Food sampling

We have a food sampling programme and regularly check for labelling, microbiological contamination and composition.

Food hygiene training

We are working in Partnership with Barking College to provide low-cost food hygiene training to food handlers and food business proprietors working locally. We are developing the courses to be able to provide them in a range of different languages.

Infectious disease investigation and food poisoning outbreak control

We investigate disease outbreaks for example typhoid, meningitis, cholera, TB, salmonella and food poisoning illnesses. Our job is to identify the source as quickly as possible, and ensure steps are taken to prevent any further spread of illness.

We have powers to take legal action, such as closure and prosecution against businesses, which do not comply with the law.

Our aim

Is to protect and improve the safety of the food people eat.

We do that by:

Encouraging food businesses to follow good practice
Making sure food businesses meet their legal responsibilities
Inspecting all food businesses within the borough
Offering food businesses advice and opportunities for training
Investigating complaints

What you can expect if you contact us:

We will get back to you within 2 working days
We will provide a full report on your enquiry within 10 working days
If our investigation into your enquiry takes some time to complete, we will tell you our progress at least once a month

What you can expect if we carry out an inspection at your business:

We will make sure we visit you during your opening hours
We will provide advice on good practice during our inspection
We will give you a handwritten report on our inspection before we leave
We will write to you within 5 working days to confirm the good practice we saw and what you need to do
We will give you the opportunity to comment on how we provide our service

Documents

Application Form for Registration of Food Premises PDF 67K

Use the guidance notes provided on page 3 and 4 of this download to fill out this form. The form must be filled out and returned to us 28 days before you begin trading. It is an offence to operate a food business from unregistered premises.

List of local providers of food hygiene training PDF 22K

Food complaints fact sheet PDF 69K

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