What to do if you think you have been made ill by eating or drinking food
How to complain about food or standards of hygiene in food premises
Starting a food business – permissions, registration and licensing
Special requirements that apply to butchers shops
Mobile food vans – requirements
Training of food handlers
Inspection of food premises
Laws that apply to food premises
The Council’s Enforcement policy
Toilets for customers in restaurants and cafes
Food sold at open markets
Darlington Borough Council awards to food businesses
If you think that you are suffering from food poisoning you should visit your GP who may arrange for tests. Doctors who suspect that a patient may be suffering from food poisoning must notify the local authority. Officers working in the commercial team then interview the patient to try to find out where the illness may have come from and, where necessary, prevent its spread. You can also contact the commercial team directly yourself for help and advice.
If you are a food handler and you are ill, you must tell your employer. Because symptoms of diarrhoea and vomitting may indicate that you have a food poisoning organism which you could pass on, it is important that you do not handle food until your symptoms have stopped and a further 48 hours have passed before going back to your food handling duties.
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All complaints that are brought to our attention about food premises, or food, which has been purchased from premises in the Borough will be investigated by officers in the commercial team.
Complaints about food should be notified to us as soon as possible as the longer you wait, the harder it is for us to prove that the foodstuff was in that state when it was sold to you. If you have a receipt for the food, keep it, as well as any packaging and keep the food in the refrigerator or freezer. Arrangements will be made to collect the foodstuff and you will be advised of the outcome of our investigations.
However, we will not seek compensation on your behalf and if your wish is purely to obtain a refund or compensation, then you should contact the retailer yourself or seek legal advice on how to take your own action.
If the complaint is about conditions at premises a visit is made and the proprietor is interviewed by an officer from the commercial team to decide if the complaint is justified. The officer will then consider whether any further action is necessary in line with our enforcement policy which considers the nature and severity of the offence, whether it could have been avoided, and also the past record of the company.
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If you are starting a new food business or taking over an existing one you must register it with your local authority. If it is a new business then this must be done at least 28 days before you plan to open. Certain premises are exempt (for example if your premises are used very infrequently. You can contact the Commercial team in the Environmental Health Section for further information if you think that this might be your case.
Before registration, we suggest that you contact us so that we can discuss your plans and advise you. A registration form can then be sent to you.
The completed form should then be returned to us. There is no charge to register and registration cannot be refused. The information on the form will be entered onto the Local Authority’s Register. The details about the address of the premises and the type of business carried out will be available to members of the public on request.
You can find further information on Setting up a new food business (pdf). You can also contact our commercial team for further advice. We recommend the Food Standards Agency website and their booklet ‘Starting Up’.
It is important to check whether the premises have planning permission for the sale of food. This is particularly important if you plan to sell hot food. You should also check the planning permission to see if there are any restrictions on trading hours since some premises are not permitted to be open for business in the evening or later at night.
Even if there are no planning restrictions and you want to trade after 10.00pm, and you propose to provide seating for customers to consume food or drinks in the premises, you will currently need to obtain a licence from the Council before you open. (Late Night Refreshment House Licence). During 2005, this law will be changing. In future you will need a ‘premises licence’ from the Council even if you do not have seating and are currently operating as a ‘take- away’ only and you are proposing to sell hot food or hot drinks after 11.00pm. You are advised to check if you need a licence by contacting the Council’s Licensing Section.
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There is no longer any requirement to licence a butchers shop.
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Mobiles must be of sound construction, kept clean and be provided with fixed facilities for hand washing or any necessary washing of equipment or food. You must keep any high risk food at the correct storage temperatures. Water must not discharge directly out of the van but into a container and waste must be collected. If there are fryers or other cooking equipment on board high and low ventilation must be provided in addition to any openable hatch or skylight. Fire safety will be important if LPG is used on the vehicle and further advice can be obtained from the commercial team.
The place where the vehicle is normally garaged or kept must be registered with the local authority under the Food Safety Act. Information on registration is given above.
In the town centre Street trading is only permitted from a licensed pitch. In other areas trading is permitted provided the vehicle and staff selling have been approved and there is no contravention of highway or planning legislation. You should contact our Licensing Section for details of the areas where there are restrictions.
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Once a business is open, there will be regular inspections from officers working as part of the commercial team. How often you are visited will depend upon the type of food that you handle/prepare and the standards maintained at your premises. This means that higher risk premises are visited more frequently. Officers are out and about during the day, in the evenings and at weekends and you will not normally be given advance notice of the visit.
The officer on arrival will explain the purpose of the visit and show identification, if requested, and will then talk to the manager/proprietor and/or your staff about such things as your systems and procedures, training, temperature control, pest control and waste collection. They will inspect all parts of the premises, look at the equipment and may ask to see any written records and documentation.
The officer will leave a written record detailing the purpose of the visit and a brief summary.
Depending upon the conditions found, the Officer may offer advice and guidance and confirm this in writing asking you to put right any problems. While we will always try to resolve the situation by informal means, sometimes, where poor conditions persist or where there is a risk to public health, we may take more formal action. This could be to serve an Improvement Notice or in certain circumstances recommend that legal proceedings are taken.
If there is an imminent risk to health of customers, the Officer can serve an Emergency Prohibition Notice to stop the use of the premises or a particular piece of equipment or activity. The court is then requested by the Council to confirm this action by making an Emergency Prohibition Order.
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The Food Safety Act 1990 and regulations made under it make it an offence for anyone to sell or prepare food for sale which is harmful to health. They also require businesses to carry out their activities in a hygienic way.
The legislation is enforced by officers authorized for food safety enforcement in a wide range of premises from corner shops to takeaways, restaurants and manufacturers.
In addition, for some types of businesses e.g. manufacturers of meat products, product specific legislation may apply and you are advised to contact the food team if you think that this might apply to you.
Our commercial team are always willing to give advice on how the law affects your business and information leaflets are available free of charge from ourselves.
Further information can also be found on the Food Standards Agency website
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Making Regulation Work - PDF format is a leaflet explaining the Council’s policy. In addition the Development and Environment Department published an Enforcement Policy - PDF format that includes details of the decision making process that officers follow when carrying out their work.
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The law requires that all food handlers should be trained to a level that is suitable for the job that they do. In house training to the required standard may be acceptable but a certificated course provides an accredited standard.
For any person handling high risk open food, understanding in the basic principles of food hygiene, such as contained in the 6 hour Chartered Institute of Environmental Health ‘Foundation’ course would be considered appropriate. This level 1 training should be updated every 3-5 years. CIEH and RIPHH both offer suitable certificated courses through various agencies.
For food handlers with less direct food contact, a lesser amount of training such as that contained in the 3 hour CIEH ‘options’ course module A may be sufficient.
Supervisory staff may benefit from level 2 (intermediate level) training.
Food Hygiene training courses are not offered by the Council. A number of local training providers including Darlington College of Technology provide nationally recognised training courses. Further information is available from our commercial team.
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Guidance on numbers and types of toilets to cater for customers is available on request from the Commercial team. At this time Darlington Borough Council has not adopted the law requiring that, customer toilets must be provided where seats and tables are provided for customers to consume food or drink on the premises.
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Food Safety Laws apply to stalls and vehicles selling food at any open market. Guidance for market traders identifying the key issues and where traders should seek further advice is available here in our Food Safety Guidance - Open Markets document (pdf)
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The Healthy School Award, Heartbeat Award and Heartbeat Gold Award were discontinued in 2007. The implementation of the Smokefree legislation and launch of the Tees Valley Food Hygiene Award on 1 July 2007 meant that they no longer have the relevance that they previously had.
National Clean Air Award
The National Clean Air Award Scheme, awards employers who implement effective workplace no-smoking policies, will be offered from 2006. This is the only smoke free places scheme which is endorsed by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and Asthma UK.
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