Food standards

Food Business Self-Assessment

As part of the regulatory obligations placed upon Staffordshire County Council Trading Standards, we are required by law to undertake risk-based interventions with all registered food businesses in the local authority.

Businesses registered with this department, are being asked to complete our online self-assessment.

Choosing not to self-assess within 28 days will result in a regulatory compliance visit being arranged by Staffordshire Trading Standards.

Business Advice

Staffordshire Trading Standards provides business advice on the legal requirements for the composition, labelling and packaging of food. The Business Support team visits businesses throughout the food chain. They then carry out audits and provide business support.

This can include: Providing general advice via TSI Business Companion; Visits to businesses to discuss the regulatory requirements applying to the business; Assessment of food labels before print to reduce unnecessary label reprints; Referring business to their local Environmental Health Service for advice on food hygiene and safety.

We can also provide businesses with advice on current healthy eating initiatives and we carry out surveillance surveys on the composition and labelling of foods.

Contact us

General advice: TSI Business Companion

Phone: 0300 111 8045

Email:businessadvice@staffordshire.gov.uk

Think Allergy

Information for restaurants, takeaways and other catering businesses.

We are working together with Environmental Health to provide advice and support to businesses to help them follow new legal requirements. In December 2014 the Food Information Regulations 2014 changed the way that catering businesses provide information to customers.

Allergic reactions can make people very ill and can sometimes lead to death. There is no cure and the only way to avoid getting ill is to make sure you don’t eat the foods that you are allergic to.

Food allergens to consider: Cereals containing gluten; crustaceans; molluscs; eggs; fish; peanuts; nuts; soybeans; milk; celery; mustard; sesame seeds; lupin; sulphur dioxide at levels above 10mg/kg, or 10 mg/litre, expressed as SO2.

What do I need to do?

Businesses serving unpackaged food need to provide information about the allergenic ingredients used in the food served. Information is needed for every item on the menu that contains one of the 14 allergens listed in the legislation. Businesses can provide this on the menu, on a chalkboard, in an information pack or from a member of staff.

If the allergen information is not listed clearly, businesses must display a notice advising customers where they can find the information. Businesses are no longer be able to say that it is not known whether a food contains an allergen or that all the food served may contain an allergen.

Customers may provide food businesses with chef’s cards which list the foods that they are allergic to. These are intended to help caterers to understand exactly which foods their customers need to avoid. Businesses taking orders by telephone or via a website, will need to provide allergen information before the order is complete and when the order is delivered.

Food labelling

In December 2014 the EU Food Information Regulation 1169/2011 replaced the Food Labelling Regulations 1996.

For advice on food labelling or compositional requirements for your business please visit: TSI Business Companion.

The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021

From 6 April 2022 larger restaurants, cafes, takeaways, food delivery companies, franchises and contract caterers who employ more than 250 employees in England will have to provide calorie information for the food and drink that they sell.

Businesses covered by the new regulations include: Restaurants, fast food outlets, cafes, mass caterers, franchises, pubs & supermarkets, home delivery services, third party apps selling food, online sales, cafes, takeaways within larger shops and venues such as supermarkets, department stores and cinemas, specialist food stores, delicatessens, sweet shops and bakeries, domestic transport businesses including planes, trains, ferries and other forms of water transport within the UK.

For further information visit GOV.UK: Calorie labelling in the out of home sector: implementation guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)