What happens during a food hygiene inspection
Find out about the process of food hygiene inspections and the food safety laws that businesses have to follow.
Food safety laws
The Food Safety Act 1990 aims to ensure that all food produced for sale is safe to eat. It must not be:
- harmful to health
- unfit to eat
- so contaminated that it would be unreasonable to expect someone to eat it
Find information about the food safety regulations we enforce from the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Food legislation can change. Make sure you stay up to date with changes in food law from the FSA.
How we inspect your premises
Our enforcement officers can enter and inspect food premises in Brighton & Hove. They’ll create a risk assessment and make sure no laws are being broken.
They’ll look at how you operate your business to identify potential hazards to food safety.
There are codes of practice that they have to follow when they inspect a food premises. This also applies if they take enforcement action.
After the inspection, they’ll give you some feedback, followed by a letter.
Depending on the seriousness of hazards in a food business, an officer can take more formal legal action. Find out more about our Environmental Health Enforcement Policy.
Read our food safety inspections and investigations privacy notice for information on how we collect, store and process your data.
We have put together some guidance documents to help you with your food hygiene inspection.
For further help contact the Food Safety team by phone on 01273 292 161 or send an email to ehl.food@brighton-hove.gov.uk.