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Who are we?
The Food Safety Team is made up of six district Environmental Health Officers, a Schools Meals Client Officer and a trainee Environmental Health Student. The team is supported by two Technical Clerks who deal mainly with the administration issues but also get involved in the teams promotional events.
What do we do?
The Food Safety Team’s main role is to ensure the large number of commercial food businesses in Torbay comply with food safety requirements and produce safe food to eat. The Team carries out regular inspections in Torbay’s food businesses to ensure high standards are being maintained .Visits to premises are normally carried out without prior notification and are priority programmed according to their risk, this ensures that the highest risk businesses are visited more frequently than those in a lower risk category.
During inspections officers will want to reassure themselves that food safety risks have been identified by the business and there are adequate controls in place to prevent any problems. They will also look at the training of all staff to ensure it is suitable and they will also check that the condition of the premises and equipment is satisfactory.
Where practices or conditions are not satisfactory every attempt will be made to resolve a situation by informal means but where poor conditions persist or where there is an imminent risk to public health it may be necessary to normally involve the service of a legal Improvement Notice or in some cases the closure of a business.
For further information view the Enforcement Activities page.
Food and Food Premises Complaints
The team also investigates complaints about food items and food premises. View the Food Complaints page for further information.
Food Sampling
The team carry out a large amount of food safety and food standards sampling in local premises across Torbay to ensure there are no problems. The food is tested for food poisoning organisms and sometimes high levels of colouring and inadequate labelling. Some of the recent sampling has included allergens in ethnic meals, kebab shops, salad and soft scoop ice cream.
Infectious Disease Investigations
The team investigates confirmed cases of food poisoning and outbreaks of Infectious Diseases.
Health Promotion Events
The team also gets involved in a number of proactive events. These include National Food Safety Week and Junior Lifeskills. These events are designed to educate the public and increase their awareness of food safety and other health related issues.
Health and Safety
The team are responsible for enforcing health and safety in commercial food businesses. They also investigate accidents in these premises that are reported under The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995.
Provision of Advice and Guidance
The Service will offer advice and provide guidance as a result of routine inspections and respond to individuals enquiries for businesses. We will also respond to enquiries from other local authorities about premises in Torbay (the ‘Home Authority, Principle)
If you are a new food business setting up in Torbay we should like to hear from you. It is much better to obtain the correct information first on what you need to do rather than after it is too late!
Related Websites
Related Tasks
Contact Food Safety
- Tel: 01803 208025
- Email: food.safety@torbay.gov.uk
- Fax: 01803 208854
