§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what action has been taken to improve food hygiene in meat-selling shops in the past five years. [24442]
§ Yvette CooperThe Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) (Butchers' Shops) Amendment Regulations 2000 (SI 2000 No. 930) were introduced in England in response to the recommendation in the Pennington report for the licensing of retail butchers' shops. These regulations, which came into force on 1 May 2000, require retail butchers and other retail outlets selling both unwrapped raw meat and ready to eat food to obtain an annual licence from their local food authority. Businesses must satisfy certain hygiene conditions before a licence can be issued, including compliance with existing food hygiene legislation, the operation of effective food safety management controls based on the principles of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points system (HACCP) and appropriate food hygiene training for food handling and supervisory staff. Similarly oriented legislation has also been put in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
We have also made £4.5 million available to fund a free training and support initiative to help retail butchers in England introduce effective HACCP food safety management controls in their shops prior to the introduction of the licensing regulations. Approximately 7,500 butchers in England received help through this initiative which ran from 1998 to 2000. Funding was also made available in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to assist butchers in implementing the new requirements over a similar time period.