£236,000 brings ‘Safer Food, Better Business’ to local caterers
Wealden’s food businesses and Council tax payers will soon benefit from a successful bid made jointly by the Food Safety teams in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden Councils.
A grant of £236,000 has been awarded by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to the 3 Councils to help their catering businesses cope with new food hygiene laws.
Next year, for the first time, all food businesses must have written food safety management systems. The money will be spent on rolling out the “Safer Food, Better Business” package, developed by the FSA, to help small businesses comply with the new requirements. This will help them by paying for a programme of seminars and one to one coaching sessions, using trained consultants.
Sompriti, the Lewes based support agency for black and minority ethnic groups, are also partners in the bid, and will offer specialist help for Chinese, Indian and Turkish restaurants.
In Wealden around 500 caterers will benefit from the money obtained.
“This is excellent news, as this will enable us to provide training sessions and face to face coaching, without charge, to our small businesses. It’s also good news for Wealden’s Council tax payers, as now we won’t have to divert our scarce Environmental Health Officers resources into a major training and awareness raising exercise,” said Councillor Mrs Pam Doodes, Cabinet Member for Health & Public Safety.
