Who is responsible for what

Food safety is a shared job. The person or company that runs the business is called the food business operator. The law places the main duties on the operator, but every food handler has a part to play.

The operator must make sure food is safe, register the business and put in place procedures based on HACCP. The operator must supervise and instruct or train staff, and must provide clean premises, handwashing facilities and the equipment needed to work safely. Supervisors and managers must make sure staff follow the rules, not just know them. In a small business, the owner may be both the operator and the only food handler.

As a food handler, you must keep yourself and your clothing clean. You must report illness and infected wounds. You must follow your workplace's procedures and must not do anything that could make food unsafe.

If you see a problem, report it. A fridge running warm, a broken seal on a delivery or a colleague working while ill are all things your supervisor needs to know about.

Due diligence is a legal defence. If a business is prosecuted, it can try to show that it took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the offence. Records are the main evidence. A fridge temperature sheet, a delivery record and a training log can all help to show this.

Imagine a customer falls ill and blames a chicken salad. The business can show that the chicken was checked on delivery, the fridge was at the right temperature, the chicken was cooked to a safe temperature and the staff were trained. Those records help to show that it took care. Without them, it has only its word.

This is why records must be true. Never write down a temperature you did not check. If a reading is wrong, record it, report it and write down what was done. An honest record of a problem shows that the system is working.