Farming

Farming

Food safety

The safety of food is vital for consumer confidence and is legislated for under the Food Safety Act 1990 and subsequent amendments. The regulations are relevant if you produce, process or retail food. This includes farm shops, catering vans and farmers’ market traders.

In addition, as part of the recently adopted 'farm to fork' approach to food safety, wider reaching food hygiene legislation covers all farms engaged in the primary production of food and extends to animal feed used by or grown on the farm.

Food safety and standards are dealt with by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). For further details see the farming and food section of the FSA website.

Food safety regulations

All premises used for storing, preparing, distributing or selling food must be registered with your local authority. This applies to all types of food business including: shops, market stalls, mobile catering vans, vending machines or food delivery vans.

The regulations apply whether you sell the food publicly or privately, for profit or for fundraising. They do not apply to food cooked at home for private consumption.

Under the 1990 Food Safety Act and the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 everyone involved in supplying food for sale for human consumption must meet basic hygiene requirements for all aspects of the business, from your premises and facilities to the personal hygiene of your staff.

Animal feed

In addition, new food hygiene regulations which came into effect at the beginning of 2006, extend the general principles of food hygiene legislation to all farms engaged in the primary production of food.

This means that the new hygiene regulations will apply to all businesses that make, use or market animal feed. This includes most livestock farms, and arable farms that grow, use or sell crops for feed use.

For further details about the new regulations see the Food Standards Agency’s farming and food section where question and answer pages are available for different sectors of the industry including:

The hygiene regulations are part of the ‘farm to fork’ approach to food safety and are intended to ensure that everyone involved in food production takes all appropriate steps to control potential food hazards, at every stage.

  • Further advice on meeting these regulations: email helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk or contact the Defra helpline on 08459 33 55 7

Further regulations exist for specific farm types and outlets such as dairy farms, or covering specific food safety issues e.g. Salmonella in chickens and eggs, avian flu, BSE and Foot and Mouth disease.

Milk and milk-based products

For example dairy farmers producing and marketing raw milk, heat-treated milk and milk-based products for human consumption from cows, sheep, goats and buffalo, must comply with health regulations laid down in Directive 92/46.

More details on the regulations can be found in the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006. Further drinking Milk regulations came in 1998 under the Drinking Milk Regulations 1998. On-farm processing of milk is covered in a hard-copy booklet On-farm processing - a beginner’s guide produced by the Milk Development Council. Relevant hygiene and safety issues are covered within this publication.

Raw meat

Following an outbreak of E Coli O157 food poisoning in 1996 new regulations were introduced requiring  statutory annual licensing of butchers’ shops handling and selling unwrapped raw meat and ready to eat food from the same premises.  The requirement included market stalls and mobile shops.

However, this licensing requirement has now been dropped as all retail butchers will be subject to the new EC hygiene regulations that apply to all other retail and catering businesses.

These regulations are very similar to the existing hygiene rules, but include a new requirement to operate what is called Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)-based food safety management procedures.

Pesticide residues

Pesticide residues in foods are an issue for consumers and are monitored by the Pesticides Residue Committee.

Agrochemicals must be used in accordance with manufacturer’s recommendations, assurance scheme guidelines and contract guidelines issued to growers by processors and retailers.

The Pesticides Safety Directorate provides detailed advice on best practice and responsible use on farms to ensure food safety.

The information booklet Pesticide Residues in Food: Fact Not Fiction summarises the Pesticides Residue Committee’s remit and testing procedures.

Useful links

Further information

  • Office of Fair Trading – Tel: 08457 22 44 99
  • Food Standards Agency – Tel: 020 7276 8000
  • Milk Development Council – Tel: 01285 646510

Page last modified: 19 October 2007
Page published: 1 July 2006

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs