Council gears up for Olympic year surge in food outlets with far reaching food safety plan

The council is gearing up for the expected huge rise in the number of food outlets and food traders in the run up and during the Olympics and Paralympics.  

Southwark Council has issued its Food Safety Plan for the next year and pledged to target those traders who persistently flout safety rules.  

The council remains among the best performing inner London boroughs for food safety enforcement.

Key figures 

In 2010/11 the food safety team:

• Doubled the number of emergency prohibition notices on premises and outlets
• Reduced the number of unrated premises by nearly 470
• Increased the number of food safety inspections to remain among the top 25% of central London boroughs on food safety performance.

Over the next year the council also aims to inspect 100% of the high-risk category traders (those in category A and B) and also 100% of new premises and those that are currently unrated. 

Examples of contraventions discovered in high risk premises which were the subject of prosecutions so far this year: 

• Uncontrolled cockroach infestation resulting in a dead cockroach being served in takeaway meal as well as being found in food containers and food ingredients.   
• Mice infestation with numerous mice droppings in food preparation areas, on preparation surfaces and sale of rodent damaged food.
• Cooked ready to eat food stored at dangerous temperature that could give rise to food poisoning. 
• Filthy premises with no hot water supply and no materials for cleaning or maintaining good hygiene practices thereby exposing food to risk of contamination.
• Cockroach and mice infestation resulting in food being actually contaminated by the pests. 

Councillor Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for finance, resources and community safety at Southwark Council, said the expected rise in food trade next year required appropriate planning. 

"As well as attracting a huge number of visitors to the borough, the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London will see a significant rise in the number of food premises and food traders in Southwark. We as a local authority will need to keep up our good work to ensure our food businesses operate safely, enforce against those that don't, and make sure that residents and tourists enjoy a safe experience when eating and shopping in our borough."  

He added that prioritization was the key to keeping on top of the situation: 

"We have made excellent progress to ensure all High and Medium risk food premises have been inspected and are in compliance. Our priorities must be to focus on those premises that by the nature of their operation present greatest risk to the public health and those that have a history of poor compliance and poor, unhygienic conditions. This Food Safety plan is our way to make sure we can do this, and at the same time maintain a food safety service which reduces all possible dangers across the board from all our premises."  

Background Information

In 2010/2011 Southwark Council

• Achieved  a 13% increase on the previous year's enforcement activity;
• Achieved a 200% increase on the service of emergency prohibition notices;
• Carried out 62% more food hygiene and standards inspections than the number targeted for 2010-2011;
• Reduced the number of unrated premises by 469;
• Remains in the upper quartile for performance when benchmarked against the 13 inner London boroughs.
• Dealt with 6% more service requests than the previous year.