Food safety

We aim to make sure the food you eat is safe by:

• Inspecting premises and mobile vehicles that store and sell food
• Investigating complaints about unhygienic premises and unsafe food
• Responding to food hazard warnings
• Sampling food to ensure it is safe to eat
• Giving food safety advice to businesses
• Providing nationally recognised food safety training courses

Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

You can find out if a restaurant, takeaway or food shop has good food hygiene standards with the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

Making a complaint about food

We investigate complaints about unfit food, contaminated food and foreign bodies in food. Please refrigerate or freeze the food you wish to complain about and contact us with the details.

Making a complaint about a food business

We investigate complaints about the conditions and practices at food businesses. Please contact us using the details to the right.

Reporting food poisoning

Food poisoning can be caused by a number of organisms and symptoms can take hours and days to develop (it is not always the last food that you ate that will have made you ill). If you believe that you are suffering with food poisoning it is critical that the cause of your illness is identified. To do this you should visit your doctor and submit a faecal specimen. Please contact us with the details once you have done this.

If your symptoms are severe, prolonged or you have any health concerns you should seek medical assistance.

Further information can be found on our food poisoning page.

Food Alerts, product withdrawals and recalls

The Food Standards Agency will issue a 'Product Withdrawal Information Notice' or a 'Product Recall Information Notice' to let local authorities and consumers know about problems associated with food. In some cases, a 'Food Alert for Action' is issued. This provides local authorities with details of specific action to be taken on behalf of consumers.
A Product Withdrawal Information Notice or a Product Recall Information Notice is issued where a solution to the problem has been put in place - the product has been, or is being, withdrawn from sale or recalled from consumers, for example. A Food Alert for Action is issued where intervention by enforcement authorities is required. These notices and alerts are often issued in conjunction with a product withdrawal or recall by a manufacturer, retailer or distributor.

Details of the latest product withdrawals and recalls, including Food Alerts for Action, can be found at The Food Standards Agency's website, using the link at the bottom of the page.

Starting a food business

There are a number of requirements that you must be aware of when thinking of starting a food business. Details of this can be found in the Food Standards Agency booklet on their website using the link below.

When starting a new food business it is very important to get things right at the start because it will make it much easier for you to run your business well in the future. You must register your premises with us at least 28 days before opening - registration is free. Details on how to do this can be found on our How to register a food business page.

Running your food business

To ensure the success of your business it is vital that you manage it so as to ensure that the food that you serve is safe to your customers.

To help small businesses a food safety management system has been developed by the Food Standards Agency. Details of this, including how to order a copy can be found at The Food Standards Agency's website using the link below.

Inspecting your business

All food businesses registered with us are subject to official food controls, which can take a number of different forms, e.g. sampling or inspection.

The frequency of intervention is dependant on the risks posed and controls in place.

If you are concerned about inspections, information on what these entail can be found on the Food Standards Agency using the link below.