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Food Production and Quality

Grated Cheese

This section inspects over 1,500 food premises on a regular basis to ensure that the food you eat is prepared in hygienic conditions and that the building, the handlers and the raw materials are all of a suitable standard. It also carried out food sampling to make sure the food is safe and (provides advice and guidance for new and existing food businesses in the area on legislation and how to handle and prepare food safely)?

Bassetlaw District Council's Environmental Health Team is responsible for ensuring high levels of food safety and hygiene at commercial premises throughout the district. This includes all premises where foodstuff is sold, distributed, manufactured, processed, prepared or handled. High standards of food safety and hygiene are essential to minimise the risk of food poisoning.

Commercial premises are regularly inspected and checked for hygiene, structural condition, equipment used and food handling techniques. Inspections may also be carried out to investigate complaints from the public and to investigate alleged food poisonings. Once a premises has received an inspection it is given a risk rating score which determines when the next inspection will be, this ranges from six months for high risk premises to five years for low risk premises.

The inspecting officer spends time with the proprietor discussing good hygiene practices and ensuring that the proprietor understands what is required by law and will offer advice on good practice. If a problem is found, the officer will inform the proprietor of the appropriate changes to be made and will return at a later date to ensure that the required action has been taken. If the requirements are not met, the business may receive improvement notices or be prosecuted. If a business is found to be a danger to health, it can be closed until standards improve.

We carry out the following duties:

Enforce food safety legislation, and inspect a wide variety of food premises in the area. These premises vary from Europe wide distributed foods, to national supermarket suppliers, to corner shops and burger vans.
Investigate food complaints, food poisoning outbreaks and food related infectious diseases, working in partnership with North Nottinghamshire Health Authority and the Public Health Laboratory Service
Carry out routine food sampling contributing to national and local sampling programmes to inform future policies
Make sure that Food Hazard Warnings and Food Safety Incidents from the Food Standards Agency are notified to local businesses
Promote good food safety via awards and local initiatives
Investigate complaints, and carry out sampling programmes for water quality in private drinking water supplies