City Council receives £220,000 boost to expand food inspection programme

The £220,000 short-term funding from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was announced at its board meeting at The Exchange in Birmingham today (9 March 2022).

This funding will enable Birmingham City Council’s environmental health team to take on four new members of staff. These will each provide essential extra support to food businesses across the city over the next six months to ensure they can achieve their full potential in meeting food safety and hygiene standards.

In addition, the council will be undertaking allergen checks on their visits to food businesses, as well as checks for cross-contamination and compliance with allergen labelling requirements, following the introduction of new rules introduced last October.

Support will also be provided to festival and live sites across the city, including food traders working on these sites during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to ensure they achieve the best possible standards.

Mark Croxford, Head of Environmental Health at Birmingham City Council, said: “This funding from the FSA is great news for our team, as we will be able to work closely with businesses, to identify and address any urgent issues as well as invest in our businesses which have not been visited or received advice during the pandemic, which is our normal work.  Some will need to ensure they are compliant with food safety and hygiene standards too.

“We want everyone who visits Birmingham to enjoy the city’s hospitality and great food offer, and for those businesses to be the best that they can be. This additional support from our expanded team will enable businesses to do so with confidence.”

Professor Susan Jebb, Chair of the FSA said: “I’m delighted to be able to announce this funding at our Board meeting in Birmingham today. We hope the Commonwealth Games will be a showcase not just for athletics, but for the city and the UK as a whole. Food will always be an important part of the visitor experience and we want to support businesses to deliver food people can trust. It’s really important that we ensure the temporary food outlets which will open for the Games uphold the same standards we expect from every other food business.

“We are, as ever, indebted to local authorities who deliver the food inspections and provide support to businesses on the ground. Their work is crucial to the confidence consumers can have in the food hygiene rating scheme. We continue to encourage everyone to check the ratings for the places where they buy food as part of our work to drive up standards.”

Food businesses can find out more about support available by visiting the council’s website