5,000 businesses to benefit from food safety grants

Monday 10 August 2009

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has awarded grants to help more than 5,000 caterers and food retailers improve food safety. This is the fourth year the FSA has given these grants as part of its ongoing commitment to helping food businesses comply with EU hygiene regulations.

Local authorities and a range of other organisations will administer the grants, to support food businesses in implementing Safer food, better business (SFBB) – an innovative and practical approach to helping small businesses put in place systems to manage food safety risks.

This year grants were awarded to projects that address one or more of our three main priorities:

• preparation for the 2012 Olympics
• moving to a new six-tier Scores on the Doors scheme
• sustainability of SFBB implementation

Sarah Appleby, Head of Food Safety: Implementation and Delivery Division at the FSA, said: 'This fourth group of awards follows the success of the previous SFBB grants and I'm really pleased that we're able to continue supporting local authorities to improve food safety standards through the SFBB programme. The Agency is committed to making sure that eating out is as safe as possible for consumers and to raise the standards in catering establishments both now and for the future.'

Local authorities were invited to submit applications for the grants in April. The applications were appraised by internal and external appraisal panels. As in previous years, the external panel had representatives from local authorities, LACORS (Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services), the British Hospitality Association and an academic from Birmingham University.

In total, the Agency received 27 applications for grants, of which 18 were successful, involving 70 local authorities and a range of other organisations.