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Food safety inspections

Food businesses are inspected by food safety officers to make sure they're clean and that food is safe to eat. Visits may be routine or can be because a complaint has been made.

What to expect with an inspection

We'll visit your business without an appointment and carry out an inspection. We have a right to enter food premises, and you're breaking the law if you prevent the inspection. We'll always introduce ourselves and explain what we're there for.

During the visit we may visit all areas, talk to anyone working there, take samples, take photographs and if necessary take food. We may ask to see paperwork such as safer food, better business, training records, pest control reports, and receipts.

At the end we'll talk through the visit. We'll explain what was good and what wasn't. For things that need to be put right we'll discuss a time limit to get the improvements done. We'll leave you a report or post/email  it to you later.

All unsatisfactory results are investigated and, where necessary, action is taken to prevent risks to health. 

Formal action we can take

The formal action we can take against a food business includes:

• giving you a report with things to do that are required by law
• serving you with a hygiene improvement notice - this is a legal notice which tells you what's wrong, how to put it right and by when     
• remove food that's unsafe or has something wrong with it
• prosecute you if there are serious things wrong
• close the business immediately if there's a severe problem, for example: the food isn't safe, the premise is too dirty or there's a rat problem

You can find out more about food law inspections on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website.

Resilience to food fraud

The Food Standards Agency defines food crime as serious fraud and related criminality in food supply chains. The National Food Crime Unit have developed a food fraud resilience self-assessment tool, where you can check your awareness of and resilience to food crime. Using the tool can help you avoid being a victim of food crime and so better protect the public.

National food incidents

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) notify us of all national food incidents and list them on their website.

Notifications fall into two categories:

• those which require action by us to ensure public safety
• those which are just for information and have no immediate cause for concern.

In cases of product withdrawal or recall, producers and/or retailers may also issue their own statement advising consumers.