Approved Premises
Your food business may
require approval if you intend to use "unprocessed products of
animal origin" e.g. fresh meat, raw minced meat, raw milk, eggs to
produce any, or a combination of the following:
- Minced meat
- Meat preparations
- Mechanically separated meat
- Meat products
- Live Bi Valve Molluscs
- Fishery products
- Raw milk (other than raw cows milk)
- Dairy products
- Eggs (not primary production)
- Egg products
- Frogs legs and snails
- Rendered animal fats and greaves
- Treated stomachs, bladders and intestines
- Gelatine and collagen
- Certain cold stores
- Certain wholesale markets
If your food business requires approval there are a number of
requirements which need to be followed and you cannot operate until
your food operation has been approved by this authority. There are
however, a number of exceptions:
- If you are a retailer, or have a genuine retail element to your
business (i.e. farm gate sales) and intend to supply other
retailers or caterers you could be exempt from approval if the
supply of the food of animal origin is "marginal and localised and
restricted".
Marginal is interpreted as a small part of the
establishments business as meaning up to a quarter of the business
in terms of food or less than two 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 approval process requires that you put in place procedures
to manage food safety and that these procedures be based upon
hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP)
principles.
The HACCP
principles are:
- To identify any hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or
reduced to acceptable levels
- To identify the critical control points (CCPs) at the step(s) at which
control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard or to reduce
it to acceptable levels
- Establish a critical limit at those CCPs which separate
acceptability from unacceptability for the prevention, elimination
or reduction of identified hazards
- Establish and implement effective monitoring procedures at
critical control points
- Establish corrective actions when monitoring indicates a
CCP is not under
control
- Establish procedures to verify that the above measures are
working effectively
- Establish documents and records commensurate with the nature
and size of the food business to ensure that the above measures are
effective
Your food safety management system can be tailored to fit your
business and should be simple and appropriate to the scale and type
of production you intend to carry out.
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:
- Cleaning and sanitation
- Personal hygiene
- Training for yourself and employees
- Pest control
- Supplier quality assurance
- Management of waste
- Preventative maintenance programme
- 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 next?
If you think your proposed food business may need approval
please contact us to arrange for a visit to your proposed premises.
At the visit 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.
An Approval application form will be sent and there will be a
certain amount of information required to be sent back with the
completed form which will include a detailed scale plan and a
description of the proposed arrangements of your business. This
will include the (proposed) arrangements for:
- 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 and staff hygiene
training
- Record keeping
- Applying the identification mark to product packaging or
wrapping
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. If you are unable to find where to receive this training
please contact us on the number below as we may be able to direct
you to the appropriate trainer.
Once your business is approved the Council will issue your
establishment 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 the unique three digit approval number which ensures
that the products are traceable back to your company.
To ensure that you are complying with the labelling requirements
you will need to contact Trading Standards on
01233 898825.
Download a copy of the Approved Premises
List 9.80 KB PDF.
Contact Us
If you would like to speak to a Food Officer about approved
premises please contact us:
Email: envhealth@ashford.gov.uk
Telephone: 01233 330581
Fax: 01233 330469
Post: Environmental Services, Tannery Lane, Ashford TN23
1PL
This webpage was updated on
12/13/2011