Food Safety & Catering Signs

Food Safety and Catering Legislation

In the UK, there are three main laws regulating food hygiene and safety. The regulations contained in this legislation are complementary and overlapping in some instances.

• The Food Safety Act (1990) supplies the broader foundation for food-related regulations and details punishable transgressions on matters such as quality, labelling and safety.


• The General Food Law Regulation (2002), incorporated from EU legislation into a UK-specific regulation, outlines food law requirements and principles.


• The Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations (2013), applicable in England, replaced and reincorporated the 2006 Food Hygiene Regulations.

These laws and embedded regulations apply to your business if you prepare and supply food in any commercial capacity. Catering safety signs in the kitchen help your company and catering staff to comply with food safety and catering legislation.

The stated legislation covers everything from unsafe or unfit foods to tracing your food sources and food suppliers. Your traceability records must indicate the:

• Addresses from where you source your food.


• Natures and quantities of food orders over specific time periods.


• Order and delivery dates of food products, meats and produce.

Offences or transgressions can lead to serious consequences for your business. These include:

• Serving unsafe foods harmful to health and unfit for consumption. This stipulation covers marketing harmful foods or adding or removing something from foods to make them harmful. Ignorance or negligence will not be regarded as an excuse.


• Marketing foods other than advertised or ordered by an end user. This stipulation falls under something called ‘purchaser prejudice’. Examples are serving full-sugar drinks when low-sugar drinks were ordered or using horse meat in a product advertised as beef mince.


• Deceptive advertising, descriptions, or false visual depictions of food on offer. This particularly pertains to ambiguous images or descriptions that ultimately lead customers and consumers to misconstrue the end product. Your menu descriptions and associated signage should therefore be explicit, precise and true.

Food Standards Agency (FSA): Tips and Guidelines

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) advises that catering businesses observe how they clean, cook and chill food to prevent issues such as cross-contamination and food poisoning. Specifics regarding these safety guidelines include:

• Correctly storing and transporting food. Dangerous chemicals and pathogens mustn’t contaminate food. You must take care that your dry and chilled storage facilities, which include plastic storage containers, are safe and clean. In the case of cold storage spaces, regulated temperatures should be maintained. This also applies to food being transported in cold storage.


• Properly trained and supervised food handling staff. Any person sourcing, preparing, or serving food in a catering capacity is a food handler. This includes waiting and bar staff. The onus rests on the employer to ensure that food handlers have the necessary skills and knowledge to work with and serve food. Training in this regard is multi-faceted and includes finer details such as protective and hygienic clothing and hand-washing practices. Commercial kitchen safety signs and posters promote this awareness and reinforce learned principles.


• Ensuring that food is safe to consume and that all food treatment and preparation methods promote safe and hygienic food.


• Transparency regarding what foods are offered and withdrawing contaminated food. This transparency also includes reasons why certain foods were withdrawn.


• Proper records on the sourcing, delivery methods, storage and expiration of foods.

Additionally, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends that caterers implement the following principles to ensure that food is handled and prepared in a safe and hygienic manner:

• Use different equipment, such as knives and cutting boards, for raw and prepared foods. Educate food handlers to properly wash hands and clean these utensils between uses as this helps with the prevention of cross-contamination. Strategically placed catering signage reminds food handlers to regularly wash hands and equipment.


• Store raw products, especially meat products, in suitable containers and preferably on the bottom shelves of refrigerators and freezers. This will prevent the raw juices from dripping onto other foods and contaminating them.


• Ensure that raw and prepared foods are packaged separately when you purchase food for your business. When unpacking your purchases, check whether any of the food spilled or leaked. Wash your reusable shopping bags between uses.

Signs for catering business ensure that your food handling staff comply with legal requirements. Safety signs in the kitchen and catering signs throughout the rest of your facility serve as a constant reminder of the importance of food safety and hygiene. Seton stocks a top range of informative and compliant food safety and catering signs.