Food hygiene inspections

Local authorities are required by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to carry out regular inspections of food businesses within their area.

In Salford, these inspections are carried out by environmental health officers in the Place directorate. Following every inspection, the environmental health officer will score the food business and issue them with a food hygiene rating from five (very good) to zero (urgent improvement necessary). Food businesses are encouraged to display the rating but you can view the latest rating for Salford's food businesses via the FSA's food hygiene rating scheme website.

Currently in Salford (April 2019), the majority of food businesses in Salford have a good or very good rating.

Food hygiene ratings for Salford's food businesses

Purpose of food hygiene inspections

The responsibility for controlling food safety rests with the owner 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 council is required to keep a record of all food businesses in Salford and put together a programme to make sure that all food businesses are inspected on a regular basis, as detailed in the Food Service Plan below.

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)

And takes into account:

• Significance of risk (potential for cross contamination; survival and growth of bacteria; documented procedures; training; required enforcement)

The frequency that food businesses are inspected is dependent on which risk category they fall into as set out below:

Food businesses can move between the categories, as conditions improve or deteriorate. Those high risk, non-compliant premises are inspected more frequently than low risk, compliant ones. This enables us to target our resources more effectively and ensure standards are improved in under performing businesses to protect public safety.

Self-assessments for risk category E premises

Food businesses in risk category of ‘E’ can now complete a self-assessment questionnaire online, on receipt of a letter from us. If you have received a letter, you can complete the self-assessment via the button below.

Complete the food hygiene self assessment form

Performance - how are we doing?

From the table below you can see how well we are performing in meeting our inspection targets. Over the last few years, the performance of the service inspecting businesses when they are due for inspection has improved and since 2012 we have inspected 100% of high risk food businesses.

Performance against local performance indicators

Our aim is to improve the level of food hygiene across Salford.

The role of the service is to enforce food safety legislation within approximately 2,200 food premises in Salford and use all four approaches of the 'enforcement mix':

• Demand: through our response to complaints/requests from both businesses and customers
• Inspection: by undertaking approximately 1,500 inspections in accordance with the Food Standards Agency's Food Law Code of Practice risk based inspection rating system
• Education: through advice to all businesses and guidance leaflets for the public 
• Intelligence: through our co-ordinated sampling program, liaison with other authorities and response to requests from Food Standards Agency

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:

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

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.

This page was last updated on 27 June 2024