Environmental health inspections A Trenchers Guide to EHO
At Trenchers catering we always strive to achieve a 5 star hygiene rating with the Environmental health office.
Have you ever wondered what needs to be done to achieve this target? Hopefully over the next few lines I will be able to explain in as much detail as I can what is required and how to do it.
EHO Inspection is The council and Governments way of making sure the food you eat in the UK is safe, and to do this, all food premises, be it like Trenchers, a catering company, or even your local supermarket, will be inspected and rated on a 0 to 5 star rating system.
The inspections are random and no notice is given when the EHO inspector will be coming to your business. Generally, the better you are rated, the longer you will have before your next inspection.
Trenchers catering is rated as 5*,which is the best, so I would expect our next inspection to be at least a year after the last, but this is just a guess!
The inspection:
The EHO Inspector will first site down with you and ask some simple questions about your business….
Name, address, type of premises, customer base, and volume of food produced. This is just to establish you are the correct company/person to be assessed and they are in the correct place, and have all the correct information for your business.
The inspector will then go around your premises, checking cleanliness of the work areas, and also look at how well maintained the equipment used to make and store food is, and well needed give guidance on what can be done better and where there are issues, point them out and if needed set out a timed plan for improvement,
The inspector is not a bad person and is only there to help your business provide the best hygiene standards possible, so if you get recommendations, don’t take offence, thank the person and act on the advice that they give you!
All fridges and freezers will be inspected and temperature checked to make sure they are within the recommended limits….. Fridge between 0c and 8c and freezers would need to be below -18c.
The inspector will then check Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP)
At Trenchers we have our own systems, which check Temperatures of Fridges, freezers, vans, deliveries received, cleaning lists, training records, flow charts.
The EHO provide a simple solution to new food business called safer food better business, this is a great resource and I recommend all businesses have this and use it if they do not have their own system in place.
The inspector will then tick of what type of inspection has been carried out:
Food safety & Hygiene (England) Regulation 2013
Regulation (EC) No.852/2004
Food Safety act 1990
Food information regulation 2014
Health and safety at work act 1974 and assoc Regs.
The inspector will then be able to tell you what further action to be undertaken by local authority, and the following is what you will have to expect:
None – Well done Good Job.
Revisit
Letter
Statutory Notice
Other
The inspector will then write a summary of work you will need to get done for your next visit, be that in 1 day or 1 year,
Get all recommendations done asap as this will show you are a reasonable food retailer.
You will then get your report in the post along with your certificate within 14 day.
Good look and thank you for reading Trenchers Guide to EHO.