Food Hygiene and Food Safety Explained
Food hygiene applies to the everyday practices, rules and steps taken to handle, prepare and store food. These practices protect consumers from harm from the food they eat.
Food safety refers to the wider system used to control food safety risks across operations. It includes cleaning to remove germs, keeping raw and cooked foods separate to stop contamination, cooking food thoroughly to kill bacteria, and keeping food refrigerated to slow germ growth.
In line with The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 food safety and hygiene law is enforced by health professionals employed by local authorities.
These laws can cover anything from food being “fit for human consumption”, to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) legislation which regulates preventative standards within the food industry.
In this guide we’ll cover all the relevant topics needed to ensure that you comply with food hygiene and safety law.
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What is food hygiene?
Food hygiene means the day-today practices we follow to keep food safe and free from contamination.
It includes how food is handled, prepared, cooked, stored, transported and served.
Generally, food hygiene focuses on reducing biological hazards like harmful bacteria, viruses, mould and spoiled food that may cause foodborne illness.
When it comes to industries like hospitality and healthcare, food hygiene is covered across the entire workflow, including:
Receiving deliveries
Chilled and frozen storage
Food preparation
Cooking and reheating
Cleaning and sanitation
Personal hygiene
Waste management
Allergen controls
Temperature monitoring
For instance, if you’re a care home or restaurant owner, poor handwashing or incorrectly storing food can quickly affect vulnerable customers.
What is food safety?
Food safety is the way you prepare, handle and store food to avoid consumers from getting sick from germs in food.
It’s often referred to using the four C’s, which are:
Clean: Make sure your hands are washed, the produce you are using is fresh, and the cooking, eating utensils and surfaces are clean.
Cross-contamination: Avoid germs from moving from one place to another by handling your food safely and keeping raw and prepared food separate.
Chill: Store your food at a temperature below 4C degrees.
Cook: Ensure food is cooked to a safe temperature to kill bacteria.
This not only keeps food safe, but it’s important in safeguarding consumers health and wellbeing from food hazards, which include four types:
Microbial – this can mean bacteria, viruses and moulds.
Physical – being aware of glass, plastic, pips, stones, bones, human or pest hair, which can be linked to microbes.
Chemical – which can be collected from cleaning, farming, hand sanitisers and metals.
Allergens: be aware of specific proteins in foods that can trigger an abnormal immune system response.
If ignored, each of these can cause different types of harm, which includes:
Microbial contamination in food can cause infective or toxic food poisoning.
Physical contaminates can cause cuts, wounds, broken teeth or choking
Chemical contaminates can cause toxic food poisoning, burns and long-term health problems
Allergens are only hazardous to people who have specific food allergies and can be particularly dangerous when hidden as an ingredient in food.
Does that mean food hygiene and food safety are the same?
While they’re closely connected, food hygiene and Food Safety are not the same thing.
Food hygiene is one area of food safety which focusses specifically on cleanliness, sanitation and safe food handling practices.
Food safety is the broader framework, which is used to control risks across various operations, which include:
HACCP procedures
Corrective actions
Supplier controls
Allergen management
Traceability
Monitoring systems
Audit preparation
How does food safety affect employers?
As an employer or business owner, there’s certain legal responsibilities that you need to follow. These include:
Implement HACCP systems:
By law, every food business must produce and maintain a HACCP plan to identify and control hazards in the workplace, this includes bacteria, allergies and chemical contaminants.
Provide staff training:
Staff must be trained in a way what is appropriate to their duties. Managers should complete a level 3 qualification in Food Safety to demonstrate their competence in food safety management.
Keep records and documents up to date.
Keep food safety records of things such as cleaning schedules, pest control and staff training to ensure proof of your due diligence during inspections.
Conduct regular audits:
You should annually review your systems, or whenever processes change to ensure you stay compliant.
Cooperate with local authorities
Environmental Health Officers (EHO’s) can call to your premises at any time, and you’re obliged to give them access. Your FSA Food Hygiene Rating depends on their assessment.
Who is responsible for carrying out these duties?
Usually, a food business will employ a Food Business Operator (FBO) to carry out these responsibilities. The FBO ensures that the requirements of food safety law are met and that food safety processes are put in place and followed correctly.
Under Regulation (EC) 852/2004, which has been retained in UK law following Brexit, FBOs are required to:
Register the business with your local authority.
Develop implement and maintain a food safety management system that complies with HACCP principles.
Clean and maintain food premises to ensure it stays in good condition.
Ensure good hygiene practice when designing or laying out premises where food is prepared.
Keep vehicles and containers that are used to carry food are kept clean and in good repair.
Make sure that equipment that is in contact with food is made from suitable materials and kept clean, in good order, repair and condition.
Use lidded bins to remove food waste, non-edible by products and other refuse.
Pest control within the workplace.
Prevent anyone who is suffering from or carrying a disease that is likely to be transmitted through food from carrying food.
Ensure that every person working in a food handling area maintains a high degree of personal hygiene.
Provide staff with suitable protective clothing and equipment.
Ensure that employees receive sufficient supervision and training in line with their job role.
What are the levels of food hygiene training?
Level 1 Food Hygiene
Designed for staff with limited direct food handling responsibilities, including:
Delivery drivers
Warehouse staff
Kitchen porters
Front-of-house staff
Level 2 Food Hygiene
Level 2 is the standard requirement for most food handlers working directly with food.
Typical roles include:
Chefs
Cooks
Baristas
Kitchen assistants
Catering staff
Level 3 Food Hygiene
Level 3 training is designed for supervisors and managers responsible for overseeing food safety systems and teams.
This often includes:
Kitchen managers
Executive chefs
Catering managers
Operations managers
Compliance leads
Level 4 Food Hygiene
Level 4 training focuses on advanced food safety management and is more common in complex or large-scale operations.
It usually covers:
HACCP management
Auditing
Microbiology
Advanced contamination controls
Food safety leadership
What is the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS)?
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS), otherwise known as “Scores on the Doors” is the strategy used to show how well businesses comply with food hygiene requirements.
This scheme is run by the Food Standards Agency and sets the food hygiene regulations for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Environment Health Officers (EHO) visit businesses for inspections to assess their ratings.
Food hygiene ratings are usually found at:
Restaurants
Cafés
Takeaways
Pubs
Supermarkets
Hotels
Hospitals
Catering operations
What do EHOs inspect?
EHOs mainly assess:
Hygienic food handling
Cleanliness and condition of premises
Food safety management systems
The inspector will also look at:
Cleaning records
Temperature logs
Staff hygiene
Pest control
Allergen controls
HACCP documentation
Operational practices
What is the food hygiene rating scale?
The food hygiene rating scale works on a 0-5 system. This system is used to grade food businesses based on their safety and cleanliness standards during an official inspection.
The rating scale:
5 = Very good
4 = Good
3 = Generally satisfactory
2 = Improvement necessary
1 = Major improvement necessary
0 = Urgent improvement required
What is the penalty for poor food hygiene?
If your business is subject to an inspection and receive a poor food hygiene rating it can lead to:
Legal penalties
A low hygiene rating
EHO enforced action
Foodborne illness outbreaks
Customer complaints
Temporary business closure
Reputational damage
Food waste
Do digital food safety systems
Digital food safety systems make the whole food safety process much easier.
Paper based systems make it difficult to maintain the standards required to operate properly. Missed checks, incomplete records, lost paperwork and inconsistency in routines can cause problems in busy a food environment.
That’s why more food safety mangers are moving to digital systems, as they can help improve the levels of supervision, make daily monitoring more straightforward and help maintain a standard across the whole operation.
If you’ve recently had an food hygiene inspection and looking to improve your standards of food hygiene, or you’re simply look for food safety advice, our Health & Safety service has experts available to help with your food safety requirements.
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