Following safe food hygiene practices is not just good practice. It is a legal requirement.

As a food handler, you need to know what the law requires of you, and what can happen if it is not followed. In this module, you will learn about the main food safety laws, food safety management systems, who enforces the law, the notices and orders they can use, and the importance of keeping good records.

Most food safety law in Ireland comes from European Union regulations, which apply directly, supported by Irish legislation.

Together they set standards for:

• Food premises and equipment.
• Food safety management.
• The training and supervision of food handlers.
• Temperature control.

If a business is prosecuted, not knowing the law is no defence.

• Regulation (EC) 852/2004, on the hygiene of foodstuffs, sets hygiene standards for premises, equipment and food handlers, including training. It also requires food businesses to be registered, and to run a food safety management system.
• Regulation (EC) 178/2002, known as General Food Law, sets out the general principles of food safety. Food is unsafe if it is harmful to health or unfit to eat, and unsafe food must not be sold. It also requires traceability, and the withdrawal or recall of unsafe food.

Regulation (EC) 178/2002 lays down the general principles and requirements of food safety, and one of its most important ideas is the meaning of unsafe food. Food is unsafe if it is injurious to health or unfit for human consumption. Food that is injurious to health could make someone ill, for example because it carries harmful bacteria or a hidden allergen. Food that is unfit for human consumption may not make anyone ill, but is not acceptable to eat, perhaps because it is rotten, contaminated with a foreign object, or has passed its use by date.

Food can become unsafe or unfit if it is contaminated with a biological, chemical or physical agent, or if its condition could cause an adverse health effect. Unsafe food must not be placed on the market. For retail staff, this is the reason behind so many everyday tasks, from date checks to removing damaged packs from sale.

The main Irish law on food safety and food standards is the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act 1998. It set up the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, or FSAI, and the system for enforcing food law through official agencies.

Irish regulations give effect to the EU rules, and set out the offences and penalties. It is an offence, for example, to:

• Place food on the market that is unsafe, or harmful to health.
• Fail to meet food hygiene requirements.
• Obstruct an authorised officer, or fail to comply with a notice or order.

Article 5 of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires every food business to put in place, and keep up, a permanent procedure based on the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, or HACCP.

HACCP is an internationally recognised system that helps a business to identify, evaluate and control the hazards that matter for food safety.

Your food safety management system is one of the three areas an inspector assesses.

• Conduct a hazard analysis.
• Determine the critical control points, or CCPs.
• Establish critical limits for each critical control point.
• Establish a system to monitor each critical control point.
• Establish the corrective action to take when monitoring shows a critical control point is not under control.
• Establish procedures to verify that the system is working.
• Establish documents and records for all these procedures.

Before HACCP can work, the business needs basic food safety conditions in place. These are called prerequisites. Examples include:

• Buying only from reputable, approved suppliers.
• Good personal hygiene procedures.
• Effective pest control.
• A clean, tidy and well-maintained workplace.
• Staff training, and good temperature control.

Everyone who handles food plays a part, by following these procedures every day.

Before the seven HACCP principles can be followed, a business must already have some essential food safety procedures in place. These are known as prerequisites, and they are the basic conditions needed to produce safe food. In a retail shop, they include buying products only from reputable suppliers, following personal hygiene procedures, running effective pest control, and keeping the premises clean, tidy and disinfected. Without these foundations, even a well-written HACCP plan will fail, because hazards will keep entering the business faster than the critical control points can deal with them.

That is why everyone who handles food needs to understand how to carry out safe food hygiene. You should be confident in your ability to identify hazards in your own work area and to follow the right control measures, whether that means checking a delivery, cleaning a slicer properly, or reporting a sign of pests to your supervisor.

The FSAI provides a practical information pack called Safe Catering. It helps small food businesses in Ireland to comply with food hygiene regulations, by setting up a food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP.

It is especially useful for shops that prepare or serve food, such as a deli counter or a hot food counter. If your role includes helping with your workplace’s HACCP plan, you should consider further training in HACCP.

Employers have extra responsibilities under food safety law. These include:

• Registering the food business with the Environmental Health Service of the Health Service Executive, or HSE, before it starts trading.
• Making sure the premises are designed, equipped and run to prevent contamination.
• Providing hand washing facilities, and preventing cross contamination.
• Training and supervising staff.
• Giving customers accurate allergen information.
• Setting up and running the food safety management system, with managers checking it is followed.

In Ireland, the FSAI is responsible for the enforcement of food law. It works through official agencies, including the HSE Environmental Health Service. Environmental Health Officers, or EHOs, and other authorised officers enforce food safety and food standards law in food businesses.

The role of these officers is to enforce the law, and to protect the public from unsafe food.

Enforcement officers have the power to:

• Enter food premises at any reasonable time to inspect.
• Investigate complaints and outbreaks of food poisoning.
• Take samples, photographs and other evidence.
• Detain or seize food that is unsafe or unfit.
• Give advice, and require improvements.
• Serve legal notices and orders, and take legal proceedings.

If your workplace receives a notice, it must be complied with. Obstructing an officer, or lying to one, is an offence.

If a business is not complying with food law, an authorised officer can serve an Improvement Notice. It sets out what is wrong, what must be done, and the time allowed to put it right.

If the notice is not complied with, the officer can apply to the District Court for an Improvement Order. Ignoring a notice or an order is a criminal offence.

Where there is, or is likely to be, a grave and immediate danger to public health, an officer can serve a Closure Order. It can require the immediate closure of the whole premises, or part of it, or stop a particular activity, until the problem is fixed. A Closure Order can also be served if an Improvement Order is not complied with.

A Prohibition Order stops the sale or use of a particular product. The FSAI publishes the names of businesses that receive Closure Orders, Improvement Orders and Prohibition Orders.

Breaking food safety law can lead to prosecution in the courts. Less serious cases are heard in the District Court, and the most serious can be tried before a judge and jury.

Penalties include fines and imprisonment. The business owner, managers, and in some cases staff, can be prosecuted. Being named for an enforcement order can also cause lasting damage to a business’s reputation.

If something goes wrong, the business must be able to show that it took all reasonable care to keep food safe.

This depends on having a food safety management system that is actually followed, backed up by accurate, complete records, such as temperature checks, cleaning records and training records, and full traceability of food and packaging. Following official guidance and good practice adds further weight.