Issue - items at meetings - Official Feed and Food Controls Service Plan 2013/2014

Report of the Strategic Director, Place (copy attached).

That the Committee agrees the Official Feed and Food Controls Service Plan 2013/2014 set out in the appendix to this report and recommends it to Full Council for approval.

61.1            The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director, Place that sought agreement to the Official Feed and Food Controls Service Plan for 2013/14.

61.2            The Chair stated that the report was important and one which the council were required to agree annually. The plan set out the approach taken by Environmental Health & Licensing and Trading Standards to ensure food supplied in the city was safe and to also help promote healthy eating habits. The Chair added that with tourism contributing £400m a year to the local economy, instilling public confidence in food safety in the city was of paramount importance. He supplemented that there were many challenges with the work from overcoming some language barriers, responding to the requirements of the new Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, to maintaining a risk based approach to intervention and responding to complaints and requests for advice. The Chair stated that he was particularly interested to note the good partnership work of the Healthy Choice Awards in promoting healthy menu options, and the awareness raising work of the Curry Chef of the Year competition.

61.3           Councillor Mitchell noted that workloads were increasing in what was already a challenging area. She asked if the Food Safety Team was sufficiently resourced to meet these challenges.

61.4               The Head of Regulatory Services replied that whilst there were currently sufficient resources, the possibility of an increase in work nationwide over 2013-14 related to food controls could pose a challenge.

61.5               Councillor Sykes re-iterated Councillor Mitchell’s concern for adequate provision of resources. Councillor Sykes referred in particular to the rise in food business premises.

61.6               Councillor Deane thanked the officers for producing an excellent report which demonstrated the provision of a high quality service. In particular, Councillor Deane noted the high satisfaction demonstrated in the responses to the post-inspection questionnaires from traders.

61.7               RESOLVED- That the Committee agrees the Official Feed and Food Controls Service Plan 2013/2014 set out in the appendix to this report and recommends it to Full Council for approval.