Food safety - your responsibilities

Food safety

If your business deals in food you must:

• make sure food is safe to eat
• make sure you don’t add, remove or treat food in a way that makes it harmful to eat
• make sure the food is the same quality that you say it is
• make sure you don’t mislead people by the way food is labelled, advertised or marketed
• keep records on where you got food from and show this information on demand - known as ‘traceability’ (PDF, 90KB)
• withdraw unsafe food and complete an incident report
• tell people why food has been withdrawn or recalled, for example by using a leaflet or poster
• display your food hygiene rating (if you sell food direct to the public)

Food additives

If you use an additive in food you must:

• only use an approved additive
• only use it if it is approved for use in that food

The food additive must not exceed the maximum permitted level.

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