Cheshire

Monday 3 March 2003

30-31 July and 1 August 2002

The County of Cheshire is predominantly rural in character and is a prime dairy farming area although farming accounts for only 3 percent of the work force. Cheshire’s population is approximately 672,000.

Some 25 percent of the population live in rural areas, 45 percent in industrial towns and the remainder in service or commuter towns (including Chester).

The County is still the home of a variety of industries including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, vehicles and food technology, with 18 percent of the workforce still employed in manufacturing industries.

Food standards and feeding stuffs enforcement had been carried out by officers in the Quality Team but since April these duties had become the responsibility of officers in Regulatory Services, a division of the Trading Standards Department.

Staff carrying out food standards and feeding stuffs enforcement were also responsible for enforcing the full range of trading standards legislation.

The Authority’s monitoring returns made to the Agency for the 4 quarters making up the financial year 2000/2001 indicated that the Service was responsible for enforcing food standards legislation in 4,071 premises.

These food businesses were predominantly within the catering (55%) and retail (39%) sectors. The returns also indicated that the Authority carried out:

Enforcement activity
No. Food standards inspections 266
Other food standards visits 62
Informal food samples 70
Formal food samples 29

Executive Summary

The Authority’s commitment to food standards and feeding stuffs enforcement was unclear as a Service Plan setting out the Authority’s policies, priorities and available resources had not been produced.

The Authority had a policy of not inspecting medium and low risk rated food premises making it impossible for timely action to be taken in any of those businesses which might not comply with food standards legislation.

The Authority’s Strengths:

Training – The Authority had a clear commitment to training those officers involved in food law enforcement. The system for identifying both generic and individual training needs of officers was working well, and appropriate training given.

Key Areas for Improvement:

Service Planning

The Authority’s Business Plan for 2002/2003 did not contain the level of detail required by the Service Planning Guidance in relation to food standards and feeding stuffs enforcement.

Service plans are an expression of a local authorities own commitment to the development of the food service. Service Plans focus debate on key delivery issues, providing a link with financial planning and set objectives for the future.

They also identify major issues that cross service boundaries and provide a way for managing performance and enabling performance comparisons to be made at both a local and national level.

Frequency of Food Premises Inspections

Food standards inspections were not being carried out at the minimum frequencies according to risk as required by Food Safety Act Code of Practice No.8: Food Standards Inspections.

The minimum frequencies are devised to ensure that enforcement authorities are regularly monitoring food standards in businesses and to enable timely interventions to be made when
necessary.

Follow up Action

Although in many cases investigations had been carried out, it was clear that appropriate follow up action was not always being taken. There was little evidence of any revisits or appropriate
enforcement action in relation to inspections, complaints and sampling.