Swindon Borough Council's Safety and Food Team undertakes food hygiene inspections of certain food businesses within the Borough. This is undertaken in line with the Food Law Code of Practice, which is issued by the Food Standards Agency. All local authorities must follow and implement the provisions of the code that apply to them.
Detailed below are the main principles of the code of practice that are applicable to the food hygiene inspection rating of food businesses and how this is applied to the Star Rating System.
To learn more about what the stars mean, see: Food Hygiene Award and Jargon Busting.
The Food Law Code of Practice states:
“4.1.6: Frequency of Inspection: Inspection Ratings
Inspection ratings determine the interval that should elapse between one primary inspection of a food business and the next and the priority of the next primary inspection of that business relative to the other businesses in the Food Authority’s planned inspection programme (See also Annex 5 of the Code of Practice)
The inspection rating(s) of a food business should be assessed or reassessed at the conclusion of every primary inspection in accordance with Annex 5 of the code of practice (or any amendment thereto that may be notified to Food Authorities by the Agency).
Inspection ratings should not be re-assessed at secondary inspections.
Inspection programmes should be planned so that businesses are inspected no later than 28 days after the relevant date determined by the inspection rating, apart from circumstances outside the control of the Food Authority such as seasonal business closures.”
Swindon Borough Council follows the Food Standards Agency's Code of Practice and undertakes risk ratings of food businesses after a primary inspection. The main categories used to determine the overall score are as follows:
The overall score is then used to determine the frequency of inspection for the business in line with the aforementioned code of practice.
The following table outlines the ratings and scores which are used in order to determine the Star Award that will be given to the premises.
These ratings are the only ones that are directly controllable by the food business and are the reason they have been used to obtain the food business star award.
The overall risk rating score and the star award given will be completed at the end of every primary inspection and the proprietor will be informed of the scores.
It is important to note that the ratings will only be given following every primary inspection and not a secondary inspection.
A primary inspection of a food business is the main inspection undertaken by an authorised officer and should include the following:-
A secondary inspection is any other visit to a food business that is not a primary inspection, for any purpose connected with the enforcement of food law, including:
The issuing of star rating awards will be undertaken following the Primary inspection. This will mean that a food business will be rated at that time. The next rating will be undertaken at the next primary inspection, which could be between 6-18 months later.
Food businesses will be given the opportunity to provide additional information on the web site. This will only be uploaded to the web site following the agreement of the Team Leader, Safety and Food Team. Food businesses can use this to indicate the improvements they have made following the last star award rating.
The Food Standards Agency website (www.food.gov.uk) is undertaking a pilot project for this type of scheme to apply on a national basis. This may alter how businesses will be rated in the future. It is important to note that both the score and rating given to a premises could be subject to change in the future. A Star rating given could go down or up if a national scheme is different to the above scoring system. The Council will endeavour to keep businesses and users informed of this.
The Star Award rating will only be given to food businesses that are inspected by the Authority in line with the Councils Food Law Enforcement Service Plan. Certain premises may not be inspected due to the low risk level of the food sold or prepared on the premises. These may be subject to alternative enforcement and will therefore not receive a star rating.
The Council also have the right to determine whether in exceptional circumstances the star rating of a particular premises should not be applicable.
Only the latest star rating award will be accessible from the web site. Any previous ratings or information on a particular premises may be available via our freedom of information pages on the website.
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