We aim to:
- Protect people by improving the hygiene and safety of food businesses
- Improve the safety of the food people eat
- Provide consumers with a trusted source of advice and information.
We do this by:
- Inspecting businesses – our officers routinely assess all food businesses to ensure they comply with the law and provide safe food for customers. This is done mainly by unannounced inspections and by sampling of foods.
- Investigating serious complaints – this includes allegations of poor hygiene, finding foreign objects in food, mouldy or unfit food. However, labelling concerns and out of date foods are dealt with by Trading standards Officers.
- Investigating allegations of food poisoning if you believe you became ill after eating a meal out or a take away. However, you will need to visit your GP and submit a specimen to confirm you have food poisoning.
However, we do not deal with complaints about poor customer service or front of house issues such as dirty toilets. If you are concerned about such issues you should complain direct to the manager or owner of the business. For more information on how we deal with complaints, please visit our Food and Health and Safety Complaint Investigation Policy page.
For specific information about starting or running a food business please visit our Safe Food and Healthy Workplaces section.
National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme – Information for Customers
Wealden has now joined the Food Standards Agency’s national scheme to improve food hygiene.
Eat Out Eat Well
The Eat Out Eat Well scheme rewards catering and takeaway establishments that offer customers healthier food options. Businesses can get a Gold, Silver or Bronze award to display on the premises based on a detailed assessment of their menu for healthier choices.
What To Look For When Eating Out
Here are some of the tell-tale clues you can look out for when choosing somewhere to eat out or buy a take away.
Food Sampling
Information on the food sampling carried out by the Food and Safety Team
Food and Health and Safety Performance
Find out how many food businesses we have inspected in the past three years and how many complaints and accidents we have investigated.
Food Safety Service Plan 2023-2024
Information on our service aims and objectives and what you can expect from the Food and Safety Team.