Food safety - risk assessment

Food businesses need to have a system to manage food safety and control potential hazards associated with their food.

A food business should be able to show how hazards are being controlled to reduce the risks.

There are 3 categories of food hazard;

Microbiological - harmful bacteria present in food;
Chemical - cleaning chemicals getting into food;
Physical - foreign bodies e.g. glass, insects in food;

To show they are controlling hazards food businesses need to have a system in place where they;

Assess possible food hazards throughout their operations;
Highlight areas that are critical to food safety e.g. cooking food to the right temperatures to kill bacteria;
Introduce controls at critical points

These controls should be;

Monitored;
Maintained;
Reviewed regularly and whenever food operations change e.g. new recipe.

These principles are the basis for the more formal Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points system used by large food businesses.

The nature and size of food businesses will determine how detailed the risk assessment needs to be, and it is probable that hazards have already been identified and controlled with written systems to support the controls.

If you have responsibility for food safety management and want to discuss your food safety risk assessment with one of our officers please contact us by any of the ways shown below.

Telephone; 01228 817336
Fax; 01228 817346
Email: FoodandSafety@carlisle.gov.uk
Online Form: Online enquiry

Food, Health & Safety Team
Carlisle City Council
Civic Centre
CARLISLE
CA3 8QG

The Food Standards Agency has produced a pack to help small businesses to introduce and maintain a food safety management system based upon risk assessment.

The pack is known as Safer Food Better Business and can be obtained (free of charge) by telephoning 0845 606 0667 or via the following link www.food.gov.uk