Richard Bradford‐Knox, Simon Neighbour and Kevin Kane explain Preston City Council's approach to managing risk and achieving compliance through cooperation and collaboration with new food businesses .

Introduction

Certain categories of food business, which produce or process meat, fish and other animal products and are considered to be high risk, are required to obtain pre‐approval before start‐up from the FSA or their local authority, depending on the size and scope of their operation. A successful pre‐approval process means that their establishment meets all food hygiene and food safety management requirements before commencement of operations^[ 1^] . Other food start‐ups, including catering or retail premises serving food, can open for business without being pre‐approved. They are required to register and are subsequently inspected by their Local Authority. Depending on circumstances, this can mean a considerable time gap between commencement of operations and inspection, thereby presenting a risk to public health from establishments that have not implemented adequate levels of food hygiene.

In order to overcome this problem, Preston City Council uses an informal and voluntary approach to engage with a business before its first inspection by inviting its owners to attend an ‘informal chat ‘with enforcement officers.

It is called an ‘informal chat’ rather than a meeting or interview because it is intended to be friendly, break down barriers between the parties and provide information that can dispel any misconceptions about the catering or retail food business, the applicable hygiene regulations, enforcement procedures and compliance.

The objectives of the approach are to change perceptions of the role of enforcement officers, to gain trust between all parties, to promote better understanding of each other's roles, mutual aims and objectives, and to improve broad compliance with the food hygiene regulations.

The primary aim is to improve levels of food hygiene ratings and therefore standards of food safety to give greater protection to the general public. When successful, the ‘informal chat’ strategy enables the Council to reduce costs and make better use of its resources by reducing the numbers of inspections and prosecutions.

Preston City Council uses an informal and voluntary approach to engage with a business before its first inspection by inviting its owners to attend an ‘informal chat ‘with enforcement officers.

Case study

This approach was the subject of a case study in 2016^[ 2^] . One of the conclusions of the case study was that the scheme will need to be verified and reviewed over time. Simon Neighbour, Preston City Council's Environmental Health Manager, the instigator of the scheme and co‐author of the original paper, has carried out a review of the approach and its success rate since the case study was published.

Preston City Council's records show that in 2008, 75% of the food businesses in Preston were broadly compliant in that they met the minimum standard of food hygiene, achieving a rating of 3 or over under the FHRS (Food Hygiene Rating Scheme) assessment procedure. By January 2016 this had risen to 95%^[ 2^] .

The FHRS is an important factor in quantitatively measuring the success of a food business's safety performance and compliance, however, the Council also views a food business that closes or leaves the food industry as being a successful outcome. The reasoning behind this is that many people enter the food industry without fully realising what is involved, particularly in terms of food hygiene standards but also the amount of work that is involved. Most of these businesses are very small and it is not economically viable for them to employ many, if any, staff. This can mean the owner(s) working long hours with little reward.

There are also some food businesses that have no intention of following food hygiene regulations and are wilfully non‐compliant, often carrying out illegal or criminal activities. The Council believes that it is relatively easy to identify such businesses and take appropriate action.

Therefore, whether a new food business achieves an FHRS rating of at least 3 or it ceases activity, a successful outcome ensues. Using this method of evaluation, the Council considers that the compliant businesses in October 2019 were close to 100%.

Following the ‘informal chat’, by the time of the next inspection, the business is ‘either compliant or gone’.

Either way there is less risk to public health and the approach results in shorter, less frequent visits for inspectors if a business is compliant. This places less regulatory burden on the Council and provides support to the individual who runs the business.

Conclusions

The Preston City Council approach can be regarded as a form of pre‐approval. The approach is informal, voluntary and non‐prescriptive, providing advice and guidance. It creates cooperative behaviour and a better understanding between the parties involved. The approach is also a first step in creating a positive food safety culture. A good functional culture enables everybody involved to contribute to maintaining, sustaining and improving standards^[ 3^] .

We propose that a similar approach could be adopted by other food industry auditing bodies. In the authors’ experience many food manufacturing businesses fail their first audits and inspections because they have not read the relevant standard or guidance documents, regard food safety audits as just a formality and have not received any mentoring; they are therefore frequently unprepared.

中文翻译：

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为新食品企业铺平道路

理查德·布拉德福德·诺克斯（Richard Bradford-Knox），西蒙·邻居（Simon Neighbor）和凯文·凯恩（Kevin Kane）解释了普雷斯顿市议会通过与新食品企业的合作与协作来管理风险和实现合规性的方法。

介绍

生产或加工肉类，鱼类和其他动物产品的某些类别的食品企业被认为具有高风险，根据其规模和范围，必须在食品安全局或其地方当局启动之前获得FSA的预先批准。他们的运作。成功的预批准流程意味着他们的建立符合操作开始之前的所有食品卫生和食品安全管理要求^[ 1 ^]。其他食品初创企业，包括提供食品的餐饮或零售场所，可以在未经事先批准的情况下开业。他们必须注册，然后由其地方当局进行检查。根据情况，这可能意味着开始运营和检查之间存在相当长的时间间隔，从而对未实施足够食品卫生标准的企业造成公共健康风险。

为了解决这个问题，普雷斯顿市议会通过非正式的自愿方式与企业进行接触，并邀请其所有者参加与执法人员的“非正式交谈”，以便对其进行首次检查。

之所以称其为“非正式交谈”，而不是开会或访谈，是因为它旨在友好，打破双方之间的障碍并提供可以消除对餐饮或零售食品业务，适用的卫生法规，强制执行的误解的信息。程序和合规性。

该方法的目标是改变对执法人员角色的认识，赢得各方的信任，增进对彼此角色，共同目标和目的的更好理解，并提高对食品卫生法规的广泛遵守。

主要目的是提高食品卫生等级等级，从而提高食品安全标准，从而为广大公众提供更大的保护。如果成功，“非正式聊天”战略将使安理会通过减少检查和起诉的次数来降低成本并更好地利用其资源。

普雷斯顿市议会在邀请其企业主与执法人员进行“非正式交谈”之前，通过非正式和自愿的方式与企业进行接触。

案例分析

这种方法是2016年案例研究的主题^[ 2 ^]。案例研究的结论之一是，该计划将需要随着时间的推移进行验证和审查。自案例研究发表以来，普雷斯顿市议会环境卫生经理，该计划的发起人和原始论文的合著者西蒙·尼伯（Simon Neighbour）对该方法及其成功率进行了审查。

普雷斯顿市议会的记录显示，2008年，普雷斯顿75％的食品企业符合食品卫生的最低标准，在FHRS（食品卫生等级评定计划）评估程序中达到3级或以上，因此大体上合规。到2016年1月，这一比例上升至95％^[ 2 ^]。

FHRS是定量评估食品企业安全绩效和合规性成功的重要因素，但是，理事会也认为关闭或离开食品工业的食品企业是成功的结果。其背后的原因是，许多人没有完全意识到所涉及的内容就进入了食品行业，尤其​​是在食品卫生标准以及所涉及的工作量方面。这些企业大多很小，因此雇用许多（如果有的话）员工在经济上是不可行的。这可能意味着所有者长时间工作而没有获得任何回报。

还有一些食品企业无意遵守食品卫生法规，并且故意不遵守法规，经常从事非法或犯罪活动。理事会认为，确定此类企业并采取适当行动相对容易。

因此，无论新的食品企业是否达到FHRS等级至少3或停止活动，都必然会取得成功。理事会使用这种评估方法认为，2019年10月的合规企业接近100％。

在“非正式交谈”之后，到下一次检查时，业务“符合要求或已消失”。

不管哪种方式，公共卫生风险都会降低，并且如果一家企业合规，这种方法可以缩短检查员的访问频率，减少其访问频率。这减轻了理事会的监管负担，并为经营企业的个人提供了支持。

结论

普雷斯顿市议会的方法可以看作是预先批准的一种形式。该方法是非正式的，自愿的和非规定性的，可提供建议和指导。它创造了合作行为，并在有关各方之间建立了更好的理解。这也是建立积极的食品安全文化的第一步。良好的功能文化可以使每个参与的人为维持，维持和提高标准做出贡献^[ 3 ^]。

我们建议其他食品行业审核机构也可以采用类似的方法。根据作者的经验，许多食品制造企业未能通过首次审核和检查，是因为他们没有阅读相关标准或指导文件，仅将食品安全审核视为一种形式并且没有得到任何指导；因此，它们经常没有准备。