Mole Valley District Council

The authority had developed a comprehensive food and health and safety service plan for 2009/2010, which had been approved by council members and was broadly in line with the service planning guidance in the Framework Agreement. Future service plans would benefit from the inclusion of details of the staffing resources required to provide all elements of the food law enforcement service and the resources available. Quarterly reviews and significant variances were reported to the Corporate Head of Service and the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Portfolio Holder.

Thorough and comprehensive documented policies and procedures had been developed and implemented covering all areas of food law enforcement responsibilities. These had been reviewed on a rolling programme and were generally up to date. The authority maintained a document control system to ensure that only current documents were available to officers and that unauthorised amendments could not be made.

In general, effective arrangements were in place to assess the competency of officers prior to authorisation and all officers carrying out food law enforcement were authorised in line with their qualifications, training, experience and competency. To ensure officers are appropriately authorised under correct legislation, confirmation should be sought from the authority’s legal department.

There was evidence that individual officer’s training needs were being assessed as part of the annual appraisal process, but these requirements needed to be drawn together into a documented training programme. Records confirmed that officers had received the 10 hours of food training required by the Food Law Code of Practice, but auditors felt it would be beneficial for officers to receive additional training in the auditing of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) based food safety management systems.

Overall, inspection targets were being achieved and it was clear that inspections had been effectively programmed and monitored in accordance with internal monitoring procedures. Record checks of the files selected confirmed that officers were generally carrying out detailed inspections and were appropriately recording their findings.

In all cases examined, a report of inspection had been sent to the food business operator (FBO) or left on site. However, file checks of some premises indicated that follow-up enforcement actions were not always carried out in accordance with the authority’s own interventions procedure. Although it was clear that officers were assessing the compliance of premises during inspections, there was not enough information recorded in every case to clearly determine the extent of the food business premises food safety management systems compliance with legislative requirements.

The service had a documented procedure for maintaining the accuracy of the database. Information entered onto the system relating to inspections and other food law enforcement activities was found to be accurately recorded on the authority’s database. The inspection programme was appropriate, up to date and being implemented effectively.

File and database record checks confirmed that in all cases examined, complaints were being properly investigated and appropriate follow-up actions had been taken. Complaint records checked were found to be complete and accurate.

The authority had a documented sampling policy and procedure, and an up to date sampling programme. There was clear evidence that the authority was actively committed to, and participating in, both local and national sampling programmes as well as sampling from local producers and approved establishments. File checks showed that in all cases of unsatisfactory sample results the authority had taken appropriate follow-up actions. This was particularly apparent from food samples taken at approved establishments.

In some circumstances it was difficult to interpret the information maintained on inspection records due to the method of retaining information electronically. However, the comprehensive findings detailed within the letters to food business operators enabled auditors to ascertain the activities and overall assessment of compliance at the premises.

The service had developed a detailed and comprehensive internal monitoring procedure and it was clear that both extensive quantitative and qualitative internal monitoring was being carried out across all areas of the food service in line with the standard and the authority’s own internal monitoring procedure.