Food Safety Team - What we do

The Food Safety Team is responsible for a range of duties and these include:

Inspecting premises that sell, cook, manufacture or deliver food.

During an inspection the premises are assessed for compliance with the food hygiene regulations. For more detail about what is included in an inspection click here. The only food premises that we do not inspect are slaughterhouses and meat cutting plants. These are controlled by the Meat Hygiene Service.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs controls hygiene on arable and livestock farms.

Investigating complaints about food or food premises.

These may range from foreign objects found in food to the chemical contamination of food. We also investigate complaints about the hygiene of premises or poor food handling practices. If you would like to complain about a food premises or a food product click here.

Trading Standards

The Trading Standards Department of Wiltshire County Council investigates complaints about food composition (eg water content) or labeling, but all trading standards complaints must first go through the government's TS Central website. Click on this link to access the TS Central website.

Food and water sampling

We routinely sample food and private water supplies (wells, boreholes, etc) for contamination by bacteria and chemicals. We do not sample the quality of mains water. This is dealt with by Wessex Water. See the 'Drinking Water Safety' page for more information.

Investigating cases of food poisoning and other infectious diseases

We work closely with local GPs and the Health Protection Agency in Devizes. If you think you have suffered from food poisoning or have been contacted by us about food poisoning, click here for more information.

Registration of food premises.

Every food premises should be registered with the Food Safety Team and this should be done at least 28 days prior to opening. We maintain a public register of all food premises registered in our area. If you would like to register as a food business click here to obtain a food business registration form.(PDF file, opens in new window).

Food Service Plan 2006 - 07

Read the Food Safety section's Food Service Plan as required by the Food Standards Agency (pdf file, opens in new window)

Updated October 2008