Food hygiene inspections

Local authorities are required to carry out inspections of food businesses. These inspections are carried out within Salford by environmental health officers of the Environment and Community Safety directorate and you can view the latest inspection rating for Salford's food businesses via the Food Standards Agency's food hygiene rating scheme website.

Purpose of food hygiene inspections

The primary responsibility for controlling food safety rests with the proprietor of the food business, however, environmental health officers inspect all types of food businesses to:

Make sure food is being handled and produced hygienically
Make sure food is safe to eat
Identify any foreseeable risks of food poisoning or injury which might arise if the food is eaten

The objectives of the inspection therefore include:

Determination of the business activities and the law that applies to the business
Gathering and recording information from observations and discussions with the people involved
Identifying the potential hazards and risk to the health of the public
Checking the effectiveness of the controls to make the food safe
Assessment of the management systems operated by the business
Identifying the contraventions of food safety law
Consideration of the appropriate enforcement action to make sure food businesses comply with the law

Planning inspections

The local authority are required to keep a record of all food businesses and put together a programme to make sure that all food businesses are inspected on a regular basis.

Frequency of inspections

The frequency of the inspection depends upon a number of factors that look at the risk to consumers. These include:

The potential hazard (type of food and method of handling; method of processing; consumers at risk)
The current level of compliance (food handling practices/procedures and temperature control; structural layout, cleanliness, facilities)
Confidence in management/control system (company’s track record; attitude towards food hygiene and safety; knowledge; documented procedures)
Significance of risk (potential for cross contamination; survival and growth of bacteria; documented procedures; training; required enforcement)

Once the risk has been determined the food premises are then inspected depending on the category they fall into as set out below:

Category	Minimum of frequency of inspection
A	At least every six months
B	At least every year
C	At least every 18 months
D	At least every two years
E	At least every three years

Food businesses can move between the categories, particularly if conditions improve or deteriorate.

Performance - how are we doing?

The performance of the service in meeting this has improved steadily over the past few years as shown in the table below:

Performance Against Local PI

Year	High risk premises	Low risk premises
1998/1999	87%	71%
1999/2000	82%	74%
2000/2001	97%	95%
2001/2002	99%	92%
2002/2003	97%	77%
2003/2004	79%	49%
2004/2005	99%	58%
2005/2006	100%	78%
2006/2007	99%	78%
2007/2008	100%	100%
2008/2009	87%	74%
2009/2010	100%	100%
2010/2011	88%	76%

Aim: To improve the level of food hygiene across Salford.

How resources are targeted:

The role of the service is to enforce food safety legislation across the city of Salford within approximately 2000 food premises. This is undertaken by using all the four approaches of the “enforcement mix”:

Demand: through our response to complaints/requests from both businesses and customers
Inspection: by undertaking approximately 1300 inspections in accordance with the Food Standards Agency's Food Law Code of Practice risk based inspection rating system
Education: through the running of free HACCP workshops on SFBB for all businesses and assisting other training through liaison with local training bodies and guidance to businesses
Intelligence: through our co-ordinated sampling program, liaison with other authorities and response to requests from Food Standards Agency and LACORS

The outcome measure:

Our performance in this field will be tracked each year through a combination of:

1. The overall risk profile of the food businesses within Salford at 1 April:

Year	A	B	C	D	E	F	Total inspected	Total premises
1994	184	379	740	240	227	126	1,100	1,977
1995	182	368	730	253	239	128	694	1,977
1996	182	359	720	236	269	136	727	1,977
1997	180	361	708	232	283	144	845	1,977
1998	146	495	776	192	190	126	989	1,977
1999	93	421	786	275	234	117	1,086	1,977
2000	81	436	753	291	244	123	851	1,977
2001	64	340	882	263	270	110	1,222	1,977
2002	37	301	935	295	242	112	1,366	1,922
2003	39	267	953	286	244	112	1,311	1,923
2004	40	260	962	283	234	102	1,066	1,881
2005	27	335	868	260	338	N/A	1,379	1,837
2006	41	299	913	266	335	N/A	1,287	1,854
2007	28	306	898	247	341	N/A	1,343	1,822
2008	34	282	929	235	363	N/A	1,337	1,843
2009	23	297	945	258	351	N/A	1,174	1,874
2010	17	235	929	284	379	N/A	1,339	1,847
2011	15	208	937	279	408	N/A	1,138	1,899 (including 49 unrated)

(Note: from 28 October 2004 Risk Group F merged into Risk Group E)

2. The number of broadly compliant premises at 1 April:

Year	Broadly compliant	Percentage	Not compliant	Percentage	Total inspected	Total premises
April 2008	1,425	77.3%	418	22.7%	1,337	1,843
April 2009	1,448	77.3%	426	22.7%	1,174	1,874
April 2010	1,507	82.4%	322	17.6%	1,339	1,847
April 2011	1,582	84.2%	296	15.8%	1,138	1,889

See the food hygiene rating pages for information on up to date compliance information for individual premises and their current hygiene rating.

The overall aim will contribute to Salford City Council’s pledges and community themes and assist with the FSA’s requirements and their strategy of reducing the incidence of foodborne illness by 20% by improving food safety right through the food chain.