On 23 June, Britain voted to end its 43-year relationship with the EU creating financial and legislative uncertainty for business owners. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) have clarified that current EU based food legislation will remain in force and current requirements for food businesses will stay the same for the foreseeable future.

The FSA are currently looking at new ways of delivering food safety controls. More information is available at their website as part of the Regulating our Future campaign.

Have your say by e-mailing: futuredelivery@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk or

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From 13th December 2016, most prepacked food is required to be marked with a ‘back of pack’ nutrition declaration.

The nutrition declaration should take the form of a table, where space permits, that includes information on the energy value ( in both kJ and kcal), fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugar, protein and salt content, per 100g or 100ml, in the food.

There are a large number of exemptions in the legislation to this mandatory requirement and these include for example:

• Alcoholic drinks with a alcoholic content of greater than 1.2%
• Food in small packs (sizes defined)
• Unprocessed, single ingredient foods
• Food, including handcrafted food, directly supplied by the manufacturer of small quantities of products to the final consumer or to local retail establishments directly supplying the final consumer.

Detailed technical guidance is available online

If you have any queries in relation to this requirement, particularly if you are unsure if you may fall into one of the many exemptions please contact your local Trading Standards Service where an officer will be happy to discuss the requirements with you.

(For Dorset based businesses the business advice line is 01305 224702)

After the recent high profile case of guests falling ill from Legionella in a Bournemouth hotel, perhaps Legionella is something that we have become a little complacent about. The potential sources of these bacteria are now much wider than people commonly think. We still need to think about hotel showers but does your business also have a spa pool, hot tub or fountain? Do your maintenance staff drain radiators, use a pressure washer, hose pipe or use compost in your gardens? 14 out of 22 brands of compost were found to contain L. longbeachae!

We know Legionella is a bacterium that has grown in a water source with sufficient nutrients (biofilm, sludge, moist soil) for growth, is inhaled as an aerosol, has an incubation period of 2-10 days and can cause fever, cough, chest pain, breathlessness and infection of the lungs (pneumonia). Those at risk generally tend to be 50+ and male who smoke and those who may have chronic heart, lung or renal conditions, diabetes or other immune-compromised conditions. These key groups may holiday more, visit garden centres with tea rooms or be your casual employees.

Under the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and COSHH, and as the Duty holder, you must undertake a risk assessment, implement and maintain the control measures. There is plenty of advice available at the HSE website

The National Food Crime Unit has launched ‘Food Crime Confidential’ - a reporting facility where food crime can be reported safely and in confidence, over the phone and through email.

NFCU would like to receive any information relating to suspected dishonesty involving food, drink or animal feed. In addition to identifying and being able to tackle specific instances of food crime, such information will them learn more about the circumstances that make offending possible.

The National Food Crime Unit would like to hear from anyone if they have suspicions including:

• That food or drink contains things which it shouldn’t
• That methods used in your workplace for producing, processing, storing, labelling or transporting food do not seem quite right
• That an item of food or drink says it is of a certain quality or from a specific place or region, but it doesn’t appear to be.

Call 0207 276 8787 or email foodcrime@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

See the Food Standards Agency Website for further details.