Unit 1 introduces the key food safety terms, why ensuring food safety is important and food poisoning and foodborne illness.
Each year there are approximately 2.4 million cases of food-related illness in the UK and this costs society equivalent to £9.1 billion every year (Source: https://www.food.gov.uk/research/foodborne-pathogens).
Benefits of good food safety standards:
- Happy customers
- Good reputation
- Top Food Hygiene Rating
- Compliance with the law
- Increased profits
- Happy team members
- Reduced staff turnover
- Reduced risk of food poisoning and complaints
- Reduced food wastage
Costs of poor food safety standards:
- Food poisoning outbreaks
- Legal action
- Fines
- Closure
- Customer complaints
- Low food hygiene rating
- More frequent inspections
Food Hygiene Ratings:
Food Hygiene Rating Scheme
If you’re in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the ratings range from 5 (very good) to 0 (urgent improvement necessary). More information on the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme can be found here: https://food.gov.uk/ratings
Food Hygiene Information Scheme Scotland
There are 3 different ratings:
- Pass means a business meets the legal requirements for food hygiene.
- Improvement Required means the business didn’t meet the legal requirements and needs to make improvements.
- Exempt means the business has been inspected, met the pass criteria, but doesn’t meet the criteria to be part of the scheme. These businesses are low-risk to people’s health in terms of food safety and you perhaps wouldn’t normally think of them as a food business – for example, newsagents, chemist shops or visitor centres selling tins of biscuits.
More information on the Food Hygiene Information Scheme can be found here: https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/consumers/food-safety/buying-food-eating-out/food-hygiene-information-scheme
