Carrickfergus Borough Council - Food Safety

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Food Safety

The Environmental Health section is responsible for ensuring food businesses comply with the food hygiene regulations.

• To provide free advice and information to food business operators
• To inspect food businesses
• To provide information regarding training courses for food handlers
• To investigate food poisoning and food complaints
• To promote good hygiene practices in commercial and domestic premises
• To carry out routine food sampling of commercial food businesses
• To promote healthy eating
• To liaise with other government agencies (Food Standards Agency & Department of Agriculture & Rural Development etc) to provide a co-ordinated approach to food safety
• To ensure food business operators comply with food hygiene legislation

Food business operators have a legal obligation to provide the general public with food products that are safe to eat.

This includes ensuring food items are purchased from reputable suppliers, are received at a safe temperature, are stored hygienically and at the appropriate temperatures & are sold within their use-by-date.

Businesses who sell food products must also ensure their premises are structurally sound, have adequately trained & supervised staff and are free from pests & contamination.

Companies/Individuals who provide food items to people (whether sold for profit or provided free of charge) must also ensure the food is purchased from a reputable supplier/shop; the food has been stored at the appropriate temperatures, is safe to eat and is provided to people within the use-by-date.

Sandwiches, soup, tea, coffee & other high risk food items provided by church halls for visitors/members of the public must also be stored at the correct temperature, be safe for human consumption, be prepared and/or cooked in hygienic kitchens.

Food Safety in the Home

The 4 C’s -Cleaning, Cooking, Chilling & Cross Contamination

• High risk chilled and frozen meat, fish & dairy products should be purchased only from reputable shops/supermarkets. These items should be stored in separate bags from other food items.
• When the shopping is complete, high risk food items should be taken home immediately and put into the refrigerator or freezer as required.
• Refrigerators should be set to achieve a temperature of 1⁰C - 5⁰C. Raw meat items should be stored on the bottom shelf to prevent blood dripping into other food items.
• Refrigerators should be cleaned regularly & should never be overstocked (particularly at peak times of the year, e.g. at Christmas) with large quantities of food, as this can reduce the level of air circulation, decreases the level of efficiency & can increase the air temperature, which leads to increased growth of harmful food poisoning bacteria & food spoilage.
• Householders should adhere to the use-by-dates on food products and have a routine of disposing of foods that are past their use-by-dates.
• When preparing raw meat/fish etc, it should be removed from the refrigerator, prepared and cooked as quickly as possible. Hands should be washed (preferably with antibacterial soap) & dried thoroughly before handling any other food items.
• Chopping boards used for preparing raw meat should also be washed & dried thoroughly after use. The use of a food safe antibacterial spray is also recommended.
• Hot food items that are to be cooled and reheated later should not be placed in the refrigerator until cold, as this increases the internal air temperature, leading to the increased growth of food poisoning bacteria & food spoilage. Hot food items should be cooled and refrigerated within 2 hours. This can be achieved by transferring the hot food to shallow dishes, which speeds up the cooling process.