Maidstone Borough Council

The authority had developed a Food Safety Service Plan for 2010/2011 in line with the Service Planning Guidance in the Framework Agreement. The plan linked to the Environmental Health Service Plan 2009-2012 and was in the process of being approved.

In response to the recommendations raised by the Public Inquiry into the 2005 Wales E. coli outbreak, the authority had notified butchers within their area of the key findings from the inquiry, had suggested effective practices to raw and cooked food segregation and offered a training course relating to the requirements in maintaining effective Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS).

The authority had recently reviewed existing policies and procedures, which were detailed, comprehensive and provided sufficient guidance to officers to carry out food law enforcement activities. In addition, the document control system was under evaluation to ensure there was a structured system in place for the review of all policies and procedures.

There was an effective system in place to authorise officers in accordance with their individual qualifications, experience and competency, and individual training needs were identified during twice yearly appraisals. Although it was not possible for the authority to demonstrate all officers that had previously undertaken inspection work had received the recommended minimum 10 hours relevant training, all officers currently involved with inspection work had received sufficient training, including specific training relating to HACCP.

Inspection procedures and checklists were in operation to assist officers in forming their decisions on the confidence in management scoring at each food business. However, the format did not prompt officers to record in sufficient detail their assessment of the adequacy of the food businesses’ FSMS completed by the officer. The authority had identified the omission from their inspection documentation and was in the process of revising and expanding their aides-memoire to allow a more detailed assessment.

Although the aides-memoire in use to record detailed findings following approved establishment inspections were not relevant to the business, the premises files were structured and in general contained sufficient information as listed within Annexe 12 of the Food Law Code of Practice Guidance. The authority was in the process of introducing an official approved establishments aide-memoire to ensure all relevant information could be captured during future inspections.

Record checks confirmed that officers were taking a graduated approach to enforcement in accordance with the authority’s own enforcement policy. To aid with consistency the authority had developed a notice checklist; all hygiene improvement notices reviewed had been served correctly in line with procedural guidance.

The authority maintained a comprehensive complaint procedure and audit checks of five complaint records confirmed that in every case complaints had been investigated effectively and appropriate follow-up action taken.

The service maintained a regional sampling programme and a detailed food sampling procedure. Records relating to sampling results indicated that on every occasion officers had taken appropriate actions in conjunction with the authority’s own procedures.

Although the service had developed a process for monitoring officers’ work and there was evidence that qualitative internal monitoring had been undertaken, there was little detail of the findings or a formal method to feedback results to officers. The procedure for internal monitoring was undergoing review and there were plans to introduce a more structured method of internal monitoring.

A 'reality check' visit at a food business was undertaken during the audit. The main objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the authority’s assessment of food business compliance with food law requirements. The visit confirmed that the checks completed by the officer were thorough, appropriate and included an assessment of the businesses’ food safety management system.

The findings from an earlier internal audit of the food safety team had identified a significant number of issues with the authority’s premises database, including inspection documentation which could not be retrieved and duplicated premises records. The ongoing database issues had resulted in a number of food premises which appeared to be either new unrated premises or overdue an intervention.

Due to the anomalies with the system it was not possible to quantify the exact number of premises requiring a food safety inspection. Although there were historical inconsistencies with the authority’s food premises database, auditors were advised that all non-programmed inspections had been allocated to individual officers and the authority were on target to achieve their intervention target.

The authority had, in conjunction with Kent and Medway local authorities, developed a framework for joint working. The agreement enabled authorities to share their specific knowledge and expertise of food establishments which required approval under Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004.