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There is no fee.
If your food business requires approval there are a number of
requirements that need to be followed. You cannot operate until
your food establishment has received a full or conditional approval
issued by this authority.
There are however, a number of exemptions from the requirement
for approval:
1. 'Composite' Products Exemption
You produce food containing both products of plant origin (e.g.
herbs, spices etc.) and pre-processed products of
animal origin.
2. General Retail Exemption
i. You retail the products of animal origin you produce direct
to the final consumer only (i.e. the public).
ii. If you are a retailer, or have a genuine retail element to
your business (i.e. farm gate sales) and intend to supply other
retailers or caterers you could be exempt from approval if the
supply of the food of animal origin is "marginal and localised and
restricted".
Marginal is interpreted as a small part of the
establishment's business as meaning up to a quarter of the business
in terms of food or less than 2 tonnes in terms of meat.
Localised is interpreted as meaning:
sales within the supplying establishment's own county plus
the greater of either the neighbouring county or counties or 30
miles from the boundary of the supplying establishments county.
Restricted is interpreted as concerning only
certain types of products being made or establishments being
supplied.
The approval process requires that you put in place procedures
to manage food safety and that these procedures be based upon
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles.
The HACCP principles are:
- To identify any hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or
reduced to acceptable levels.
- To identify the Critical Control Points (CCP's) at the step(s)
at which control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard or
to reduce it to acceptable levels.
- Establish a critical limit at those CCP's which separate
acceptability from unacceptability for the prevention, elimination
or reduction of identified hazards.
- Establish and implement effective monitoring procedures at
CCP's.
- Establish corrective actions when monitoring indicates a CCP is
not under control.
- Establish procedures to verify that the above measures are
working effectively.
- Establish documents and records commensurate with the nature
and size of the food business to ensure that the above measures are
effective.
Your food safety management system based on the HACCP principles
can be tailored to fit your business and should be appropriate to
the scale and type of production you intend to carry out.
Prior to implementing your documented food safety management
system a pre-requisite programme should be developed and set in
place to provide a sound foundation for your
HACCP. Examples of pre-requisites to consider would
be:
- Cleaning and sanitation.
- Personal hygiene.
- Training in food safety and hygiene matters for yourself and
employees.
- Pest control.
- Supplier quality assurance.
- Management of waste.
- Preventative maintenance programme.
- Food incident/recall management systems.
Once you have put these pre-requisites in place it is
recommended a process workflow for each of your products is
developed. This requires you to think about where the
raw materials are going to be stored and managed, stock control and
rotation, how to avoid the raw materials coming into contact with
the processed product, and where the finished product will be
stored after production. An effective work flow diagram
will also identify the process steps and help you with your HACCP
programme.
Once an establishment has been approved it is a legal
requirement for the business operator to inform the local authority
of changes to any detail previously supplied e.g. a change of food
business operator, a change to the activities carried out in
relation to food, the closure of an establishment etc.
Next Steps:
If you think your food business proposal may need approval it is
advisable to contact us in the first instance to arrange for a site
meeting and/or advisory visit from an officer. The
officer may suggest a planned programme of works in order to
achieve approval, but rest assured s/he will guide you through each
of the steps required to assist your circumstances.
An Approved Premises (for Food) Application Form can
either be completed on line or sent in the post. The application
process requires a variety of important information to be sent back
with the completed form. Section 8 of the form outlines the
relevant detail required to be sent in support of the application.
Approval can only be issued when all infrastructure and documentary
requirements have been satisfactorily met.
Once your establishment is approved you will be issued with a
unique approval number. It is a requirement that this number be
applied to all products handled in the establishment that are
subject to the approval.
To ensure that you are complying with the labelling requirements
you will need to contact Trading Standards at County Hall Taunton,
Somerset TA1 4DY. Telephone 0845 3459188 or email: Generalenquiries@somerset.gov.uk
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