Aberdeenshire Council’s Environmental Health Service has successfully prosecuted a Banff fast food trailer operator under food hygiene regulations. Legal action was taken against Colin Duguid after all informal methods of making his business comply with hygiene requirements had run out.
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Mr Duguid pled guilty to two charges under the Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 at Banff Sheriff Court on March 20.
The first charge related to the failure to implement a food safety management system with procedures and records for the monitoring of food during delivery, storage, cooking, hot holding, cooling and reheating.
High-risk food was stored outwith refrigeration, with no effective policy in place to control cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food.
The second charge involved a failure to ensure the premises were kept clean and maintained in a good condition and repair.
Both charges related to Mr Duguid’s mobile food vehicle at the lay-by off the A98 Banff to Portsoy road, between the Whitehills and Ladysbridge junctions.
Sheriff Peter Hammond fined Mr Duguid £300 on the first charge and admonished him on the second.
The prosecution was the result of work by Aberdeenshire Council’s food law enforcement officers over nearly three years, during which they found the trailer in a dirty and greasy condition, with raw and ready-to-eat food stored together and no cleaning or disinfection being carried out.
Despite serving formal Hygiene Improvement Notices on two occasions, further inspections discovered additional breaches of the regulations.
Environmental health food specialist officer, John Bell, said: “This conviction sends a clear message to food businesses that they must ensure their premises are maintained in a clean and hygienic condition, with food protected from contamination at all times, and that any matters brought to their attention by food enforcement officers are dealt with promptly.
“The food business operator in this case showed a flagrant disregard for food law and it is important that food businesses realise that they will not be allowed to get away with unhygienic practices which put the health of Aberdeenshire residents and visitors at risk.”
The council’s Environmental Health Service is in the process of developing a strategy whereby all food hygiene inspections will focus on the procedures food businesses have in place to adequately control the risk of cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods.
It is part of a national initiative driven by the Food Standards Agency in Scotland and will concentrate on issues such as the separation of raw and ready to eat foods, thorough cleaning and disinfection of equipment, utensils and structure and adequate personal hygiene procedures, in particular satisfactory hand-washing and the maintenance of appropriate documentation and records.
Detailed guidance on the control of cross contamination has been published by the Food Standards Agency and is available free of charge to every food business.
Aberdeenshire Council will be sending explanatory letters to all affected food businesses in the next few weeks detailing the new requirements.
In addition, from April 1 food enforcement officers have the power to serve a Remedial Action Notice to immediately prohibit the use of a specific piece of equipment, or prohibit a particular process or procedure or reduce the rate of any operation which breaches the Hygiene Regulations.
Aberdeenshire Council’s Director of Infrastructure Services, Stephen Archer, said: “We have to stress that the vast majority of food businesses in Aberdeenshire comply with food hygiene requirements.
“We would be failing in our duty to them and to the general public if we did not take effective action where there is a reckless disregard for food hygiene.”
