Food safety for businesses

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All food premises in Renfrewshire must be registered with the council. Anyone starting a new food business must register at least 28 days before opening for business. If you need a registration form you can:

download the form from this page, fill it in, sign it and post it back, or
contact Environmental Services on 0141 840 3106.

Food Registration Form (pdf - 642KB)

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It is also a good idea to contact us if you are thinking about starting up your own food business or taking over an existing business. We can give you advice and information on what you would need to meet the legal requirements

Inspections

Environmental health and food safety officers routinely inspect all food premises in Renfrewshire. Visits are planned and organised using a priority system which is based on the potential risk of the operations carried out within the premises. High risk premises include hospital kitchens, food manufacturers and large catering establishments. Low risk premises would include small retailers of packaged foods.

Enforcement policy

Environmental Services' Regulatory Services (Trading Standards, Business Regulation and Wardens Service) have adopted an integrated enforcement policy, which sets out in detail what traders can expect when its officers are carrying out enforcement duties.

Regulatory Services Integrated Enforcement Policy (pdf - 38KB)

This Enforcement Policy document can be made available in an abridged form for anyone who requests it.

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Enforcement officers can use their legal powers to improve hygiene standards in premises, and to prohibit food premises or processes being used. They also carry out routine bacteriological and chemical sampling of foods manufactured, produced or sold in Renfrewshire. Another important aspect of the work of Enforcement Officers is the checking of food standards such as labelling, decorative ingredients, and other statutory ingredients all of which have to conform to current legislation.

All food businesses require to have a written food safety management system. A simple safe food manual has been developed to help with this. The manual takes you through all the relevant subjects such as

personal hygiene
staff training
stock control
cross contamination
cleaning
pest control

There is also a daily temperature monitoring sheet. You can download copies of the safe food manuals below.

Safe Food Manual (pdf - 474KB)

Safe Food Manual: Bakers (pdf - 541KB)

Safe Food Manual: Churches and clubs (pdf - 192KB)

Safe Food Manual: Chinese restaurants (pdf - 638KB)

Safe Food Manual: Takeaways (pdf - 620KB)

Warning - pdfs may take some time to download due to the large file sizes.

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Food Hygiene Training

The Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 require a food business operator to make sure that any staff who handle food are supervised, and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene in a way that is appropriate for the work they do. The person or people responsible for developing and maintaining the business's food safety management procedures, based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles, must also have adequate training to enable them to do this.

As a guide, those food handlers who prepare open, high-risk foods should have formal training. This takes the form of a food hygiene course which is available at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. The minimum requirement is the basic food hygiene course. Topics such as food poisoning, micro-organisms, preventing food contamination and pest control are covered.

In some larger organisations, in-house training may be used. So long as this is of an appropriate standard, it will satisfy the legal requirement. It is good practice for a business to keep records of training completed by every member of staff.

We are a registered training centre for the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) food hygiene training courses. We can offer both the Introduction to Food Hygiene and the Elementary Food Hygiene Courses. To book a place or for more information contact us.

Other local food hygiene training providers include:

Reid Kerr College

phone: 0141 581 2218
web: Reid Kerr website

Glasgow Metropolitan College

phone: 0141 566 6222
web: Glasgow Metropolitan College

Cardonald College

phone: 0141 272 3333
web: Cardonald College

For more information on courses and training providers, visit the REHIS website.

Useful leaflets

Food Hygiene - A Guide for Businesses
Covers the key laws that affect your business, what they require you to do and how they are enforced. This booklet also explains about good food hygiene practice.

Starting up - Your first steps to running a catering business
This booklet is for people setting up a restaurant, cafe or other catering business that already exists or starting a new one. It is available in a variety of languages including Urdu, Punjabi and Chinese.

Food Law inspections and your Business
This leaflet outlines what inspections are for and what inspectors do.

Food Allergy – What you need to know
This leaflet highlights the common allergens and gives tips for food businesses in dealing with customers with allergies.

New Standard for Detergents(pdf - 130KB)