While you will not always be able to tell if the food coming into your business is contaminated, you must take practical steps to reduce the possibility of contamination. For example, you might take the following steps.
Ask your food suppliers to make sure that food is protected from contamination during transportation and, wherever possible, ask them to send it in packages or containers.
Check that food is covered or packaged when it arrives and that the packaging or covering is not damaged, and check the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date – if the ‘use by’ date has passed the food must be rejected.
Make sure, wherever possible, that food is not delivered unless someone is at work to inspect the food when it arrives and to place it directly into the freezer or refrigerator or other appropriate storage area.
It might be difficult to check every item of food that comes into your premises but you could inspect incoming food on a random basis. You might also decide to check food from some suppliers more often than you check food from suppliers whose product generally arrives in good condition.
If food delivered to your premises is contaminated or you think it may be contaminated, you should return it to the supplier or, with the agreement of the supplier, destroy the food. For example, you may suspect contamination if packaging around the food is split or damaged. Food is also contaminated if it contains insects, rodent droppings, glass, metal or other foreign matter, or if it has spoilt.
If an enforcement officer asks you to do so, you must be able to provide the officer with information on the suppliers of any food on your premises and what that food is. You need this information in case food on your premises is found to be unsafe or contaminated in some way and has to be returned to the supplier or destroyed.
Although most, if not all of the food you buy will be labelled with the name of the product and the name and address of the manufacturer, importer or packager of the food, you may also have unpackaged or unlabelled food on your premises and will need other ways of proving what this food is and where it came from. You might do so using your supplier invoices, or you might keep some other record of your suppliers and what you buy from them and the food you have on your premises.
You must not accept food unless you can identify it and trace it back to its supplier.
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Answer:
While you will not always be able to tell if the food coming into your business is contaminated, you must take practical steps to reduce the possibility of contamination. For example, you might take the following steps.
Ask your food suppliers to make sure that food is protected from contamination during transportation and, wherever possible, ask them to send it in packages or containers.
Check that food is covered or packaged when it arrives and that the packaging or covering is not damaged, and check the ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date – if the ‘use by’ date has passed the food must be rejected.
Make sure, wherever possible, that food is not delivered unless someone is at work to inspect the food when it arrives and to place it directly into the freezer or refrigerator or other appropriate storage area.
It might be difficult to check every item of food that comes into your premises but you could inspect incoming food on a random basis. You might also decide to check food from some suppliers more often than you check food from suppliers whose product generally arrives in good condition.
If food delivered to your premises is contaminated or you think it may be contaminated, you should return it to the supplier or, with the agreement of the supplier, destroy the food. For example, you may suspect contamination if packaging around the food is split or damaged. Food is also contaminated if it contains insects, rodent droppings, glass, metal or other foreign matter, or if it has spoilt.
If an enforcement officer asks you to do so, you must be able to provide the officer with information on the suppliers of any food on your premises and what that food is. You need this information in case food on your premises is found to be unsafe or contaminated in some way and has to be returned to the supplier or destroyed.
Although most, if not all of the food you buy will be labelled with the name of the product and the name and address of the manufacturer, importer or packager of the food, you may also have unpackaged or unlabelled food on your premises and will need other ways of proving what this food is and where it came from. You might do so using your supplier invoices, or you might keep some other record of your suppliers and what you buy from them and the food you have on your premises.
You must not accept food unless you can identify it and trace it back to its supplier.