Food Safety - Food Sampling
Sampling
The Food Hygiene (Wales) 2006 and The Food Safety Act 1990 enables officers to take samples of food for analysis, microbiological examination or other investigation. Samples may also be purchased from food premises.
Food samples taken by Food Enforcement Officers are taken to the laboratory for analysis and microbiological examination. Public analysts and food examiners carry out the analyses of food samples.
As a consequence of results, further investigations may be made into manufacturing and handling techniques. If enforcement officers suspect that food does not comply with the food safety requirements, that it may cause food poisoning or some other demise. They may issue the owner with a notice requiring it to be kept in a specific place and not to be used for human consumption while they investigate further.
Alternatively they may feel that no investigation is needed and simply seize the food and have it removed to be dealt with by a Justice of the Peace (JP).
If a JP decides that the food is unsafe, he or she may order it to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of. If the JP decides the food is not unsafe then the owner is entitled to compensation equal to the foods loss in value.
WFMF Chicken Survey Programme
The Public Protection Department is an active member of the Welsh Food Microbiological Forum (WFMF) and participates in proactive food sampling programmes on a weekly basis. Such participation involves sampling target foods to identify associated risk factors with particular products across the Principality. Between March 2005 and April 2006 1136 food samples were taken.
In a recent sampling programme that Bridgend CBC and other local authorities in Wales and Northern Ireland were involved in was ‘The Survey of Campylobacter and Salmonella in Raw Retail Chicken Available to Consumers in Wales and Northern Ireland’.
This involved purchasing a whole raw chicken each week, either fresh or frozen and having the results analysed for the food poisoning bacteria’s Campylobacter and Salmonella.
Out of the 588 samples taken in Wales 62.4% tested positive for Campylobacter and 5.1% tested positive for Salmonella. This highlights the importance of thoroughly cooking chicken to ensure that food-poisoning bacteria is killed.
Contact Us
Public Protection Department
Environmental and Planning Services Directorate
Bridgend County Borough Council
Civic Offices
Angel Street
Bridgend
CF31 4WB
Tel: (01656) 643260
Fax: (01656) 643285
publicprotection@bridgend.gov.uk
- Last Updated: 14/05/2007
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