Perception is that the ‘Health Inspector’, ‘Environmental Health Officer’, ‘Food Law Enforcement Officer’, ‘Food Safety Professional’ wants to visit your food business and make your life a misery, make you wish that we had never walked in, make you want the hole in the ground to swallow you up, we want your business to fail and for you to be shamed across social media and the press – for you to be shut down….that’s true isn’t it!  We love a grimey grubby unsafe kitchen!….wrong – its quite the opposite.

Food Safety Professionals want you and your business to be compliant – that way not only does that mean the public consuming food from your premises are safe and you and your business are legally compliant, but, it also means less work for the food enforcing authority and less bad attention on your business!

A food business with a food hygiene rating of 0, 1, 2 or 3 can mean repeated food safety enforcement visits, verbal and written warnings including reams of legislation quoted action points in letters and schedules of work, serving of enforcement notices, potential closure of a premises, preparation of prosecution case files, dates in court, potential food poisonings for investigation and repeated customer complaints, test purchases and undercover investigations all being directed through the enforcement offices etc.  A huge drain on public sector resource.

On the other hand, if you are being awarded a 4 or 5 hygiene rating, your inspection could be over in 1 hour and you may not be seen again for up to 2 years (depending on the risk rating of your business) – now wouldn’t that be nice!

If you want to keep your local Environmental Health Officer at bay, only visiting when scheduled, employ a private Food Safety Professional to help you keep one step ahead.