Food safety and SFBB (Safer Food, Better Business)
The European catering industry is experiencing the biggest changes in food safety laws for 15 years, due to new legislation which came into effect on 1st January 2006. The legislation affects all food businesses, large AND small, including caterers, primary producers (such as farmers), manufacturers, distributors and retailers. How the legislation affects you will depend on the size and type of your business.
This pack has been developed to help small catering businesses such as restaurants, cafés and takeaways, comply with new regulations that came into effect from 1 January 2006. The new system simply ensures that all businesses have hazard controls over every area of possible risk, and that records are kept to prove that this is the case.
SFBB consists of a series of Safe Method Fact Sheets based on Cooking, Chilling, Cleaning, Cross- Contamination which detail how these key areas of food preparation and handling should be dealt with effectively. They include a section to help the caterer deal with basic supervision and management issues, and a daily diary form provides the record-keeping requirement. The Caterer should work through these Fact Sheets to select which are applicable to them, and adopt the procedures as necessary. This simple procedure is their hazard analysis, unique to them, and, provided it is maintained and records kept, meets the statutory requirements. SFBB requires procedures to cover the following areas:
Reference: Blue paper, Foster “An Update for Catering Business"