All Councils produce an annual Food Safety Service Plan that outlines what they are doing to ensure food safety. Each year a report is submitted to the Executive of the Council on the past years performance and plans for the future.

Download the Food Safety Report 107Kb PDF

The information is summarised below:

Activity over 2007/08

We completed 99.24% of our food safety inspection programme, involving a total of 396 inspections. An additional 192 food safety inspections were undertaken to premises not in the programme as of the 1 April 2007. These include new businesses inspections and those subject to complaint.

The food service investigated 186 complaints about unsatisfactory food / food premises and dealt with around 163 statutory reported infectious diseases that were considered potentially food related illness. The food service also responded to 52 national food alerts and 38 food allergy notifications. The service completed its food sampling programme, taking 262 food and environmental samples.

Further details on food sampling are provided on the sampling webpages.

Looking beyond the routine work, the Scores on the Doors scheme was introduced across the Borough on the 1 October 2007. This scheme involves publishing, via the Council’s website, the risk ratings given by food officers following their food safety inspections. As a result of publishing the food safety inspection ratings, we have seen the percentage of excellent (5 star) premises increase from 3.3% to 11%. Even more importantly, we have seen the number of very poor (zero star) premises decrease from 6.3% to just 0.5%. Only four premises now fall within the very poor category and they are the subject of focused enforcement activity.  These figures indicate that food produced within the Borough is safer since we introduced Scores on the Doors and that public health is better protected as a direct result of the work undertaken by the Council.

A further indicator of the success of Scores on the Doors is the interest and support it has received from the public. After just three months of operation over 31,000 enquiries were made on the Scores on the Doors website. By the end of March we had received over 8,000 enquiries. Finally, it was pleasing to have the scheme recognised by our own staff as important when we received the 2007 Root & Branch award for best innovation.

You can find more information on our Scores on the Doors webpages.

Another important programme operated by the food service over last financial year was Safer Food Better Business (SFBB). This is a practical approach to food safety management that helps small businesses put in place food safety management procedures and comply with food hygiene regulations. There are a number of SFBB packs available which are designed to meet the specific needs of different food businesses. There are packs for catering and retail businesses including restaurants and takeaways that serve different cuisines. A grant from the Agency made it possible to provide workshops on SFBB and funded coaching visits to help businesses implement the system. During 2007/08 a total of 39 businesses attended the workshops and received coaching visits. The SFBB programme has been very well received by Ashford’s food businesses and it is hoped that we will be able to continue promoting SFBB despite Agency funding no longer being available. This is important in order to provide businesses with a practical way of improving their risk category and therefore getting more stars for Scores on the Doors.

You can find more information on our Safer Food Better Business webpages.

The service also contributes to food safety policy development across both the County and nationally. The Council’s Lead Food Safety Officer attends the Kent Food Group and another member of the team is Secretary of the Kent Food Sampling Group. The Environmental Health Manager is an adviser to the Local Government Association Food Policy Forum and takes over as Chair later in the year.

Service objectives for 2008/09

Our primary service objectives are as follows:

• To carry out food safety inspections. At present this will involve around 570 inspections
• To undertake food complaint investigations
• To operate a Scores on the Doors scheme
• To promote the Safer Food Better Business programme
• To explore implementing a Health Choices Award
• To provide food hygiene a programme of formal food safety training for businesses
• To provide more information on food issues on the Council’s website. To initially focus on advice for new food businesses
• To undertake a programme of food sampling
• To investigate notifications of food related infectious disease
• To respond to food safety incidents and respond to food hazard alerts
• To support the Kent Food Group and participate in appropriate peer audits
• To support the LGA Food Policy Forum
• To ensure that all operational procedures are updated to reflect Food Standard Agency Code of Practice changes

An important priority over 2008/09 will be to increase our partnership work with the Primary Care Trust and Kent Public Health. Work will initially focus on implementing a Healthy Choices Award. Promoting safer and healthier food is one of the most direct and effective ways of improving the quality of people’s lives, and Ashford’s food service is able to help do this. This work also links to the Kent Agreement targets around obesity and mortality rates.

If you wish to know more information please contact the Food Team on 01233 330581 or email envhealth@ashford.gov.uk.