Food hygiene certificate

[SarahDean]

Do you need a good hygiene certificate if you hire out candy carts and candy floss/ popcorn machines etc

 

[obscure]

No. You are an equipment hire company not a food maker/seller. Your clients, who operate the machines and make/sell the food products would.

 

[g]

Your clients, who operate the machines and make/sell the food products would.

Food hygiene certificates aren't a legal requirement.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Food hygiene certificates aren't a legal requirement.

The Law on Food Handlers
So, what type of training must food handlers receive by law? The main pieces of food hygiene legislation that you must comply with as a food business owner are the Regulation (EC) 852/2004 of the European Parliament on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs, the Food Safety Act 1990 and Food Hygiene (England Regulations) 2005. In short, these pieces of legislation state that anyone handling food must be appropriately supervised, as well as receive relevant instruction and/or training in food hygiene and safety. It is also stated that whoever is responsible for maintaining food hygiene procedure needs HACCP training. These standards apply to anyone working with food in the hospitality or retail sectors.

Who is a food handler?
A food handler is anyone who directly engages with food, so even if your staff handle food in a retail capacity (e.g. greengrocers), they still must meet these standards. Staff members who are responsible for the cleaning of surfaces that come into contact with food also technically count as food handlers, so their knowledge must also meet the requirements outlined by the law.

 

[LiveNetworks Ltd]

Ok so technically, the 'certificate' isn't stated as a requirement but you must ' receive relevant instruction and/or training in food hygiene and safety'

The certificate demonstrates you've met the legal requirements so if you can demonstrate you met the legal requirements in some other way, I suppose you could argue that the certificate isn't required.

 

[g]

I suppose you could argue that the certificate isn't required.

No need to argue... FSA eliminate ambiguity.

 

[LiveNetworks Ltd]

Good find! If you're running a public facing retail setup certificates do add to confidence though and if you're just starting out, trying to demonstrate your training and experience without a formal course is probably more trouble than it's worth.

 

[g]

No need to argue... FSA eliminate ambiguity.

Good find!.

I'll share a secret... before posting my initial response hours ago, I checked to be sure.

• (There's a useful thing called 'Google' - which could be of huge help to posters, in offering links to good and factual sources of appropriate info - with none of the 'IMHO stuff'.)

Somewhat churlishly, I didn't bother to then-add the appropriate link, because...

• I figured somebody-or-ten would chime-in with a bunch of irrelevant/inaccurate waffle, and I was interested to see just how quickly things would get so out of kilter that the thread became almost useless.
• And, the first responder had already answered the original question and thus provided a solution. My post was in response, to clarify a potential misunderstanding therein.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

So what you are saying is you are nothing but a wind up merchant

 

[g]

So what you are saying is you are nothing but a wind up merchant

The quality of my answers suggest otherwise.

And, elsewhere in my posts to other threads, are points about encouraging self-responsibility.