, "15":"Food allergens In this feature partnership working FIRs allergen labelling Better together Partnership working by trading standards and environmental health is helping catering firms in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent crack the new food allergens regulations, writes Amanda Farrell S taffordshire has a two-tier local authority structure, withStaffordshire County Council (SCC) providing a tradingstandards service, and eight district/borough councils supplying environmental health services. Food safety and hygiene, therefore, is controlled at district level, and food labelling and composition at county level. Stoke-on-Trent City Council is a unitary authority, providing a public protection division, encompassing trading standards and environmental health. To ensure effective coordination and sharing of best practice relating to food-enforcement work across Staffordshire and Shropshire, a Food Liaison Group made up of representatives from the eight district environmental health services, Stoke-on-Trent City, Telford & Wrekin, and Shropshire councils, Staffordshire Trading Standards and Public Health England meet every two months. This structure is mirrored within the Chief Officers Group, which has a strategic, remit. In December 2014, allergen labelling at catering establishments was made a legal requirement by the Food Information Regulations 2014. In two-tier local authorities, trading standards services have a duty to enforce these regulations in their area. There are more than 5,000 catering businesses across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, varying from large multinational businesses to small, independently owned cafes, and canteens within care homes, community groups, schools and childrens day nurseries. Many caterers have some awareness of and controls in place for allergens such as nuts and gluten, but the new regulations mean that, for the first time, they have to check proactively for 14specified allergens in the food they sell. Given the diverse nature of the businesses involved, and the significant change to the law, a variety of advice and educative tools would, ideally, be used to support the firms into compliance. Implementing this legislation provided a challenge to Staffordshire Trading Standards, which did not routinely carry out interventions at caterers because of the low trading standards risk of their activities. Typically, because of their higher food-safety and hygiene risk, they receive more inspections from environmental health. Generally, caterers only receive contact from trading standards after a complaint, or as part of a sampling project; this means many will never receive a visit from a trading standards officer. the project In the spring of 2014, the trading standards lead food officer initiated a discussion about whether environmental health services should deal with compliance with the new allergen requirements during foodhygiene inspections. As a result, the Staffordshire and Shropshire Food Liaison Group drafted a project proposal to provide advice and information as well as ongoing monitoring and support to caterers on the labelling changes. This was agreed by the Chief Officers Group, and a task-and-finish group was formed to complete the proposal. The Allergens Working Group consisted of representatives from Staffordshire Trading Standards, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council environmental health, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, and a business representative from a prominent, local catering business. Thegroup met and agreed a work package, which included: G Pre-December 2014 G Sharing a database of caterers in Staffordshire G An advice letter, sent to caterers in Staffordshire and Stoke-on- Trent, by Staffordshire Trading Standards and Stoke on Trent public protection respectively. This included written advice, plus details about where to get further information, including contact details for trading standards and/or environmental health; plus a Food Standards Agency poster, which uses cartoon-style pictures to explain the requirements G Information on trading standards and environmental health websites G An entry on the Stafford Chefs forum Facebook page, which is used by chefs working at cafes and restaurants in Staffordshire to share news and information G Training for environmental health officers by trading standards G Use of Twitter to publicise the website and advice letters Implementing this legislation provided a challenge to Staffordshire Trading Standards, which did not routinely carry out interventions at caterers because of the low trading standards risk of their activities Additionally, Staffordshire Trading Standards and Stoke on Trent public protection provided advice and support to school-meals providers and other council-run catering services. G Ongoing and post-December 2014 G Environmental health services include allergen checks during food-hygiene inspections. This gives businesses an opportunity to discuss allergen controls with someone face to face, as well as providing a monitoring role G Complaints to be investigated by trading standards G Advice to businesses to be provided by either trading standards or environmental health (whoever the business contacts) G Trading standards to retain the lead role on allergen controls, and to provide advice and support to environmental health colleagues ifneeded G Nationally produced Food Standards Agency business advice and training materials to be used for the project where possible outcomes The project resulted in more than 5,000 businesses receiving advice about allergen-labelling requirements, to enable them to prepare for the change in the law in December 2014. The database sharing has enabled trading standards and environmental health to update information on catering businesses in their areas. The work has built on existing good relationships between the departments, and has helped environmental health staff to become more confident in food-labelling law, enabling allergen work to be built into hygiene inspections at businesses. Staffordshire Trading Standards has responded to more than 60 requests for further information from businesses that had received the advice letter, allowing further detailed discussions on complying with the new requirements to take place. Lessons learned 1 The agreement of the Chief Officers Group was key to this work going ahead. Monitoring of allergen controls takes time during the food-hygiene inspections, and it was essential that the chief officers recognised this and agreed to commit resources at a senior level. Having existing and ongoing relationships between operational staff at the Food Liaison Group enabled the work to progress quickly once the go-ahead was agreed. The group meetings provide a forum for discussion and sharing of best practice, to ensure consistency of approach across the county. Working with businesses at the outset of the project provided a useful sounding board for how to approach the work, and how to enable communication via the business networks including Facebook. The use of Food Standards Agency materials ensures that highquality, consistent information is given, saving the local authorities time, and allowing the message we provide in Staffordshire and Stoke to be in line with the national picture 2 3 4 The project has ensured that a consistent approach is taken to allergen labelling across both the county of Staffordshire and the city of Stokeon-Trent. With trading standards and environmental health working in partnership, businesses receive ongoing monitoring and advice on allergen controls that would not have been possible if trading standards was working alone. This should lead to higher levels of compliance from businesses, and give confidence to consumers with food allergies that they can eat out safely at caterers in Staffordshire and Stoke. Credits Published You might also like Amanda Farrell is principal trading Tuesday 24 February, 2015 New FIRs in a nutshell January 2015 standards officer at Staffordshire County Council. Images: Paul Michael Hughes / Shutterstock To share this page, click on in the toolbar "