HomeFood safety
Everyone loves eating out, whether you're dining with friends or picking up a sandwich at lunchtime. You should always be confident that care has been taken to prepare the food you eat. Even when you're making food at home, you must follow proper hygiene rules to avoid illness.
This food safety section contains guidance for food businesses, food safety information for consumers, food law guidance and information about infectious disease and food poisoning.
What we do
We carry out a wide range of food safety duties in Belfast. These include:- carrying out planned food hygiene inspections and interventions of all food businesses
- approving manufacturing premises that handle meat products, dairy products, fish products, and other types of food of animal origin
- investigating food complaints and complaints about the hygiene of premises
- investigating cases of food poisoning
- carrying out routine microbiological and compositional sampling of food
- checking food labelling
- responding to food alerts
- advising businesses on the layout of food premises, food safety management systems, hygiene standards, food labelling and training.
We also promote food safety in the home and provide information to the general public, businesses and the voluntary sector on any aspect of food safety and food standards.
Good food hygiene video
This video explains the four main things to remember (the 4 C's) for good food hygiene:- Cross-contamination
- Cleaning
- Chilling
- Cooking
How can we help you?
Business advice
Visits to premises are an integral part of our service and we use them to help food businesses understand their legal obligations and make sure that the food they supply is safe.Visits are planned using a risk-based approach that targets resources to where they are needed most and reduces the inspection burden on the better businesses. The support provided on these visits can be vital to businesses particularly in the current financial climate.
If you are a business in Belfast and would like advice, visit our food business section
Consumer advice
Our food team is readily available to advise you on food-related issues. If you are a consumer and you've eaten food that has made you ill, you've had an allergic reaction to food or you've bought an item of food in Belfast that you believe is contaminated in some way, visit our food complaints sectionWe encourage customers to take an active role in reporting food businesses within Belfast that have poor food safety practices.
We regularly carry out investigations into customer requests such as sightings of vermin or pests on food premises, poor levels of cleanliness in premises, poor food handling practices and undercooked food.
