What we do
The Commercial Team deal with a variety of areas that affect peoples health in different situations and in different approaches.
Principally the officers enforce legislation in relation to food safety and hygiene in anyway that food is stored or sold to the public, and also to ensure that workplaces are safe places to work or visit, including premises equipment and practices.
To complement the enforcement work in these major areas we can supply advice and information and have produced a short summary of the major acts and regulations that affect businesses. We have powers to require improvements or even to close businesses down or stop processes in situations of potential harm.
We are notified of cases of infectious diseases such as dysentery, typhoid, food poisoning including E.coli 0157 and work with the Health Protection Network to investigate the causes and reduce the risks of infection spreading to others.
Other areas of work that we are involved with include, controlling street traders, inspection and sampling of foods, maintaining records and reporting to central government on our activities. We inspect and licence body piercers and tattooists, animal boarding and breeding premises including zoos.
We act on complaints from the public about premises, foods, and work place safety issues and get involved in national withdrawals of foods or dangerous work equipment.
We try to promote good health in our areas of enforcement by working with other agencies and organising local displays, competitions and publicity campaigns.
Report a food problem
If you want to report a food problem, including poor food hygiene, foreign objects in your food, or the cleanliness of food premises, visit the dedicated Food and food premises complaints page for more detailed information and a link to how to report your concerns.