Approved Food Businesses

If you operate a food business within the district you must, by law, register your premises with the environmental health service at Bromsgrove District Council at least 28 days before opening.

In addition if your food business makes, prepares or handles food of animal origin for supply to other businesses then, in most circumstances, the food business and its activities must be approved
by the Council.

To obtain approval you will need to meet certain hygiene standards, set out in:

Link to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 Hygiene Rules for Food of Animal Origin  /

Link to Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 Hygiene of Foodstuffs

What are foods of animal origin? 

These include:

• · Meat and poultry - whether fresh, frozen or cooked
• · Meat products such as pies, sausage rolls, faggots, black pudding and bacon
• . Raw or partially cooked minced meat or meat preparations such as sausages, burgers, marinated raw meat and kebab meat
• ·  Fish and fish products such as fish fingers, prawns, lobsters, crabs and crayfish - whether dead or alive.
• ·  Live bivalve molluscs
• ·  Ready meals containing fish or meat
• ·  Milk and dairy products such as butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, ice-cream, etc.
• ·  Frogs legs and snails
• ·  Rendered animal fats and other animal by products such as gelatine, collagen, stomachs, bladders and intestines
• ·  Honey and blood

Which premises need to be approved?

All food premises making, preparing or handling food products of animal origin are required to be approved unless they are exempted. If your food business supplies food of animal origin to the final consumer, i.e. the person who eats the food product, then they are exempt from approval.

In addition there may be an exemption available depending on the extent to which the business wishes to supply food of animal origin to other businesses.

Some businesses are exempted based on supplying other retailers on a marginal, localised and restricted basis.

Marginal is interpreted as a small part of your establishment’s business usually up to a quarter of the business in terms of food or less than 2 tonnes in terms of meat.

Localised is interpreted as meaning sales within the supplying establishments own county plus the greater of either the neighbouring county or counties or 30 miles from the boundary of the supplying establishments county.

Restricted is interpreted as concerning only certain types of products being made or establishments being supplied.

The question of whether a business is exempt is complicated and will depend on actual business arrangements. If you have any doubts about whether these exemptions apply to your business please contact the food team using the contact details below.

What does being approved require me to do?

Premises that are approved under these regulations must meet additional requirements over and above the general requirements that apply to ordinary food businesses as they usually involve more high risk operations.

Approved premises must be able to demonstrate that procedures are in place to manage food safety and that these procedures are based upon hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) principles.

The HACCP principles are:

1.       Identify any hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels

2.       Identify the critical control points (CCP’s) at the steps at which control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard or         to reduce it to acceptable levels

3.       Establish a critical limit at those CCP’s which separate acceptability from unacceptability for the prevention,  elimination or reduction of identified hazards

4.       Establish and implement effective monitoring procedures at critical control  points

5.       Establish corrective actions when monitoring indicates a CCP is not under control

6.       Establish procedures to verify that the above measures are working effectively

7.       Establish documents and records commensurate with the nature and size of the food business to ensure that the above measures are effective

Although these requirements may sound onerous, the food safety management system can be tailored to fit the business and should be simple and appropriate to the scale and type of production intended to be carried out. If you have any doubts please contact the food team using the contact details below.

You are also required to have received adequate training in the application of HACCP principles and for you and your staff to have been instructed or trained in food hygiene matters to a level appropriate to your jobs.

Prior to implementing your documented system a prerequisite programme should be in place which provides a sound foundation for your HACCP.  Examples of prerequisites to consider would be

a)  Cleaning and sanitation

b)  Personal hygiene

c)  Training for yourself and your employees

d)  Pest control

e)  Supplier quality assurance

f)  Management of waste

g)  Preventative maintenance programme

h)  Incident/Recall management systems

Once you have put these prerequisites in place a process work flow for each of your products is advised.  This requires you to think about where the raw materials are going to be stored and managed, stock control and rotation, how to avoid the raw materials coming into contact with the processed product, and where the finished product will be stored after production.  An effective work flow diagram will also identify the process steps and help you with your HACCP programme.

What do I do if I think my business require approval?

If you think your food business may need approval please contact the food team at Bromsgrove District Council to discuss your query or to arrange for us to visit you. At the visit the need for approval can be fully considered and how the business can best comply with the requirements of the regulations can be discussed. For example there may need to be a planned programme of works in order to achieve approval and you and/or your employees may need to gain further training proportionate to the size and nature of your business.

To ensure that you are complying with food labelling requirements you may also need to contact the Trading Standards Service at Worcestershire County Council

Link to Trading Standards Service at Worcestershire County Council

How do I apply for approval?

If it is determined that your business requires approval an application form will be provided to you which you will need to complete and return to us. There will be a certain amount of information required to be sent back with the completed form. This will include details of your HACCP plan, a scale lay out plan and a description of the proposed arrangements of your business including:

• ·    Waste collection and disposal arrangements
• ·    Water supply quality testing arrangements
• ·    Arrangements for product testing (shelf life/microbiological/water)
• ·    Pest control arrangements
• ·    Arrangements for monitoring staff health
• ·    Staff hygiene training
• ·    Record keeping
• ·    Applying the identification mark to product packaging or wrapping

Determination of the application will require a site visit and an officer will contact you within 14 days of receipt of the completed application in order to arrange this. 

Food businesses must not commence any business activity which requires approval, unless they have received conditional or full approval for the proposed activity from the council. To commence business without approval is an offence for which the business may be prosecuted

You will be advised in writing within 28 days following the determination of your application for approval.

Apply for approval

Refusal of approval

In the event of your application being refused you will be notified of the reasons in writing and the matters necessary to satisfy approval requirements. You will also be advised of your right of appeal to the Magistrates Court.  

What happens when my business is approved?

Once your business is approved the Council will issue your business with a unique approval number which makes up part of the standard identification mark which must be applied to your products and documentation.  This is in the form of an oval mark containing a unique approval number which ensures that the products are traceable back to your company.

Require any further information?

If you have any further questions about approved premises, the approval process or feel that your business may require approval please contact the food team.

To contact the food team at Bromsgrove District Council:

Telephone 01905 822799

E-mail us at wrsenquiries@worcsregservices.gov.uk

Our address is Worcestershire Regulatory Services, PO Box 866, Worcester  WR1 9DP