Health and safety at work act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and
safety in Great Britain. This impacts on food retailers as they will need to inspect the whole thing, but they
can’t just get anyone to inspect it, they will need to get someone who knows what they are doing, which will
cost money and make improvements if there are problems but it will benefit them.
Health & Safety First Aid Regulations 1981
The Health and Safety first aid Regulations 1981 require employers to provide suitable and appropriate
equipment, facilities and personnel to ensure their employees receive immediate attention if they are injured
or taken ill at work. This will impact food retailers as they will need to hire first aiders and they will also need
to train their employees and make them aware of first aid which will cost them funds.
Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
The meaning of the laws sets out the responsibilities for employers, self-employed or those in control of
work premises to report certain work-related accidents, certain injuries, diseases and dangerous
occurrences. This impacts the food retailers as they will need to monitor their own employees closely to
see if they have anything wrong with themselves or they will have to have regular check ups for their
employees this will also cost funds.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) 2002
Provides a framework to help protect people in the work placement against health risks from hazardous
substances. This may be used directly in the
work place (e.g. cleaning chemicals) or may arise from the work (e.g. dust fumes).
Food Safety Regulations 2005
Guidelines on the following: Food must not be unsafe, i.e. it must not be injurious to health or unfit for
human consumption. Labelling, advertising and presentation of food must not mislead consumers.
Food businesses must be able to identify the businesses from whom they have obtained food, ingredients
or food-producing animals and the businesses they have supplied with products, and produce this
information on demand. Unsafe food must be withdrawn from sales or recalled from consumers if it has
already been sold. There are different types of food organisations that operate through using their
responsibilities to ensure that they follow and meet the various types of food and safety legislation.
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
Hazard analysis and critical control points or HACCP is a systematic preventive approach to food safet from
biological, chemical, and physical hazard in production processes that can cause the finished product to be
unsafe, and designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP is referred
as the prevention of hazards rather than finished product inspection. The HACCP system can be used at
al stages of a food chain, from food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution,
etc. It is import that all food retailers like Sainsbury are able to use high quality machines like temperature
controlled refrigerators and freezes for products that can closed and picked out from a shelve. The benefit
of this method ensure that all employees and consumers are able to consume a product that is safe to
clean and is stored in a hygienic area.