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A food safety audit can be daunting for any business, especially if you don’t know what to expect. The food safety experts at Telsen have put together a few, simple steps to ensure that your business achieves a five-star Food Hygiene Rating every time.
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme awards UK food businesses a rating from zero to five. The Scheme applies to any business working with or handling consumable goods, including cafes, restaurants, caterers, schools, hospitals, wholesalers, and retailers. Ratings help consumers to easily understand a business’s food hygiene standards, empowering them to make informed choices about what and where they eat.
When you register as a new food business, your local food safety team is notified and an inspection is arranged. Your rating is then decided by an authorised Food Safety Officer or Environmental Health Officer based on what they find on the day of inspection.
Depending on the level of risk associated with your business, ongoing inspections may take place as often as every six months, usually without notice. Each inspection will include an investigation of how food is handled, prepared, and stored, as well as an audit of your food safety management practices and the overall cleanliness of your premises.
Here is a breakdown of what the ratings mean:
Your business is compliant with all relevant legislation and you are demonstrating a high standard of food handling, training, safety, cleanliness, and hygiene management.
You are maintaining good hygiene standards, but you may have a few minor errors that your inspector will advise you on how to improve.
There is room for improvement in your food hygiene, but your standards do not present an imminent threat to consumers.
Improvements are necessary to ensure that you are safely meeting your legal requirements and complying with relevant food hygiene legislation.
Significant and immediate changes are required, likely due to multiple or consistent breaches and/or a lack of suitable food hygiene training.
A zero score indicates that the inspector has found a need for urgent improvement before your business can continue to work with food.
Food businesses are required to comply with relevant health and safety laws at all times. This includes ensuring that you are following safe food handling and preparation practices, your physical premises are fit-for-purpose, and you have a good food safety management plan.
Your food is stored, handled, and prepared properly. Your staff are maintaining work areas, washing their hands, and preventing contamination.
You have implemented a good safety management plan that includes sufficient food hygiene training and detailed record-keeping.
The physical spaces in which you are storing, handling, or preparing food are clean, well-ventilated, temperature-controlled, and laid out appropriately for the tasks at hand.
By following these five simple steps, you can ensure that your food business is meeting its food hygiene responsibilities, complying with relevant legislation, and achieving a great Food Hygiene Rating.
The first step to excellent food hygiene is well-trained staff. Ensure that your whole team has regular food hygiene training that includes tailored guidance on food storage, handling, preparation, and cleanliness. Clearly detail what you require from them to ensure proper food hygiene across the business, including regular hand-washing, personal hygiene, sickness tracking, injury prevention and recording, and use of protective equipment, such as hairnets, where appropriate. Telsen can help you meet training goals by adding staff training schedules as workflows with reminders to ensure that your team’s knowledge is always current and comprehensive.
You should keep detailed, up-to-date written records of any hygiene-related guidance, practices, or challenges in your business. This should include cleaning and maintenance schedules, products and procedures that you use to maintain good hygiene, pest control measures, and regular temperature checks of refrigerated areas. If you’re struggling with record-keeping, you can automate and evidence your records with the click of a button using Telsen’s clear, detailed audit trails.
A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan (HACCP) plan details the ways that your business can identify, minimise, and eliminate potential hazards. When properly implemented, an HACCP plan will help you reduce the risk of biological, physical, and chemical hazards and contamination. A good HACCP plan is a critical component of a good Food Hygiene Rating, and Telsen can help you achieve this by flagging any non-conformances and enabling you to make changes proactively.
Employ robust food storage and preparation systems and practices that prevent cross-contamination, ensure proper temperature control, and track use-by dates. Refrigerators and freezers should have thermometers installed, and food should be securely stored and clearly labelled. When preparing food, use colour-coded chopping boards and a separate preparation area for raw ingredients. Use food probes to ensure proper cooking temperatures, and keep them clean and calibrated. Telsen-supported sensors can keep your food storage areas safe with continuous temperature monitoring that alerts you automatically if anything goes out of range.
Food preparation areas, sinks, floors, and surface areas should be kept clean at all times, with cleaning products placed conveniently to wipe up any spills or contaminations as they occur. A regular cleaning schedule should be implemented for ovens, refrigerators, and freezers, and bins should be emptied and cleaned regularly. Cleaning responsibilities should be clearly communicated and distributed among staff - a great way to do this is with our cleaning schedules and checklists. Don’t forget to clean the outside of your premises as well, as this is the first thing that an inspector will see when they arrive!
Preparation is the key to a successful food safety audit, but many food businesses still need a little extra support to meet their food safety requirements. Telsen can simplify your obligations by helping you ditch the paperwork and implement automated systems with digital food safety and effortless reporting.
We offer sensors for every need - temperature, air quality, and more - with instant alerts for any deviation. We provide digital checklists to streamline your daily workflows and digital HACCP checks to ensure that your critical control points are properly monitored and recorded. We can even automate all your reporting, enabling you to demonstrate compliance at any time, even during an unscheduled visit from your local Food Safety Officer.
Book a demo today to learn how we can help you simplify your compliance and breeze through your next food safety audit.