Restaurants and catering

Food Businesses

All food businesses in our district receive routine hygiene inspections.  The frequency with which we inspect a particular business depends on the size of the business and the standards that we find during our inspection.

The Food safety team inspects approximately 400 food businesses each year to check that they are complying with food safety laws.  When we find hygiene problems in a business, we have a range of enforcement powers available.  These range from informal advice through to immediate closure of the business.  The action that we take is in proportion to the health risk of the problems discovered.

We routinely sample certain foods to check that they are safe to eat, and we investigate cases of food poisoning in the district.

If you are considering starting up a food business we would urge you to have a look at the information in the Food hygiene advice for businesses section of this site.  It is also important to discuss plans for your business with an officer from the Food safety team before you start.  It is much better to involve us at the planning stage, quite often we can end up saving you money.

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Consumers

As the customer of a food business you have the right to expect the food you are sold is safe to eat, and has been prepared in hygienic conditions. The vast majority of businesses in our district maintain high hygiene standards, but occasionally problems do occur. If you are unhappy about the hygiene standards in a food business please contact our Food safety team .  If you believe that you have been made ill by eating out, please contact our Community Team on 01273 484359 or email ehealth@lewes.gov.uk.

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