A public comment period has been opened regarding Jersey’s new food safety law.

The revised legislation aims to ensure greater health and safety in the preparation, service, and distribution of food.

The draft Food Safety (Jersey) Law will replac the Food Safety (Jersey) Law 1966 and apply to businesses involved in the preparation and sale of food. The closing date of the comment period is Nov. 1.

It covers import to and export from Jersey of food, licensing of food businesses, offenses, and penalties, and steps a business must take for withdrawing unsafe food from the market.

Jersey is the biggest of the Channel Islands and sits in the Bay of St. Malo close to the French and English coasts.

Additional public protection
Officers from environmental health will carry on checking firms to ensure they are complying with the law. Eat Safe will continue to provide information to the public about food hygiene standards within a business.

Eat Safe star ratings are 0, 2, 3, 4 or 5 with 0 being the worst and 5 the best, reflecting the premises’ food safety and hygiene status. All businesses are required to publicly display their star rating by law. Companies are inspected between every six months to three years, depending on the level of risk and compliance.

“Jersey already has excellent rates of compliance with best practice in food health and safety and this legislation will offer additional protection for organizations who commit to sustaining high standards of practice,” said Caroline Maffia, assistant director of Environmental Health.

“This revised legislation will further protect the public against the adverse effects of poor practices within the various industries who deal with food, and the consultation events will offer a chance for the industry to engage with these new measures and speak with officers from Environmental Health about the changes.”

Consultation meetings are scheduled for Sept. 9, 17 and 18 to enable those that work within the industry to understand how the law will affect the sector.