Food Service Plan 2025-26

Introduction

There is a central government requirement for local authorities to comply with relevant legislation, codes of practice, guidance on enforcement priorities and a framework document to produce an annual service plan for food law enforcement.

This plan is supplementary to the Service’s Strategic Plan.

It gives more specific detail on the Service’s aims and objectives for the forthcoming year in complying with the current Food Law Code of Practice and Food Standards Agency Framework Agreement with Local Authorities, which embodies the requirements of the legislation.

The Trading Standards Service covers the county and unitary authority areas of Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay. The Service is hosted by Devon County Council but jointly commissioned by Devon, Somerset, Plymouth and Torbay councils, ensuring that the objectives of all four authorities are met. Governance of the Service is through a Joint Services Review Panel (JSRP).

Profile of the local authority

The area covered by Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service has a population of approximately 1.8 million and is characterised by many small businesses – over a quarter of all business are not registered to pay VAT or employ staff.

The area has four times more agricultural activity than the national average and Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay are home to many innovative and well-known food producers.

Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay are also popular domestic holiday destinations and attract large numbers of visitors every year. As a consequence, there are twice as many tourism businesses in the service area as the national average. Food therefore plays a key role in the economy of the area covered by the Joint Service.

Organisational structure

The Service has appointed a Lead Officer for Food Standards who oversees the implementation and co-ordination of official controls for the Service. The Lead Officer reports to the Operations Manager and Team Manager who have strategic oversight of this area of specialism for the Service.

The day-to-day work is carried out by appropriately qualified and/or trained and experienced Trading Standards Officers who undertake this work as part of their overall duties for the Service within the teams they are based. Wherever possible work is carried out in co-ordination and partnership with other enforcement agencies such as district authority environmental health teams, the Food Standards Agency, the National Food Crime Unit, port health authorities, the Animal & Plant Health Agency and when necessary, the police.

Scope of the Food Service Plan

The Joint Service undertakes the normal range of food standards activities within the area of Devon, Somerset and Torbay councils. Plymouth City Council is responsible for carrying out Food Standards controls in the city of Plymouth.

The Service is also responsible for the enforcement of a wide range of consumer legislation controlling the advertising, marketing, production, distribution and supply of goods and services throughout the manufacturing, importation, distribution and service delivery chain.

This plan reflects the enforcement programme for food standards (including legislation relating to materials and articles in contact with food, single-use plastics and food placement and promotions). Animal health premises and animal feed premises are subject to separate plans. Official controls relating to the primary production of food are enforced by the animal feed team.

District councils have responsibility for food hygiene and some health and safety enforcement. Liaison and referral arrangements are in place with the district councils to ensure good co-ordination, exchange of information and referrals on relevant matters.

Several services are delivered alongside food standards. These include: weights and measures, fair trading, product safety, animal health and welfare, and animal feed.

All enforcement services are provided in-house and supported by external expertise such as public analyst services, where necessary.

Demands on the food service

There is a typical spread of businesses for a county ranging from small, self-employed sole traders to large national food manufacturers.

The profile of businesses recorded on the Trading Standards database is outlined below (N.B. these figures exclude those for Plymouth):

Total number of food and drink businesses: 29,164.

The businesses can be broken down by type as shown in the table below.

The service area has seen a significant growth in the food industry in the past 12 months. We received 2,487 notifications of new food businesses being registered with environmental health. All new businesses received written food standards advice by email. This service operates a triage system for new food business registrations which resulted in an additional 1,496 premises being registered on our database as new food businesses. The most notable growth in the past 12 months has been in the mobile food sector. The increase in manufacturers is due to a change in premise coding.

Enforcement Policy

The Service has an Enforcement Policy.

Service aims and objectives

The control of food allergens is classified as one of the main service priorities and receives full senior management commitment and support as an area of law which we have a statutory requirement to enforce.

We support delivery of all four partner local authorities’ strategic goals. Although not identical, they can be grouped into a set of generic priorities expressed by three key outcomes which make up the Service Mission Statement:

1. Economic growth is supported by ensuring a fair, responsible and competitive trading environment.
2. Protecting consumers especially the most vulnerable.
3. To help people live healthier lives by preventing harm, promoting individual health.

Our enforcement priorities are identified through an annual Strategic Assessment, which analyses the last three years of Service activity to identify key issues and likely trends. A law enforcement model of risk is then used to rank each service functional area by balancing threat and harm with the capabilities and resources of our joint Trading Standards Service. Threat factors assessed included reported physical harm, financial detriment and volume of complaints received. These are then prioritised and incorporated into our Control Strategy. Our four priority areas for 2025/26 are:

• Doorstep crime and rogue trading.
• Animal health and welfare including disease control.
• Illegal tobacco and vapes.
• Food allergens.

For more information on this and our wider work, structure and governance see Service plans, governance and policies.

The objectives and service targets of Food work are included in the Service’s Operational Plan. Inspections and sampling targets for Food can be found in that document.

Service delivery

Delivery of food standards official controls

The Food Law Code of Practice states that each Food Authority should document, maintain and implement a Food Standards and Food Safety Intervention Programme for which the Food Authority has food law enforcement responsibility. Interventions should be applied in a risk-based manner so that intensive Regulation is directed at food businesses that present the greatest risk to public health.

The Service intervention programme is based partly on the National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) risk scheme and intervention frequencies indicated by the Food Law Code of Practice (as below), partly based on intelligence obtained from a variety of sources and partly based on sector specific surveys (surveillance) to obtain intelligence that will inform future interventions in that sector.

Official food controls are carried out by authorised food officers who are qualified and competent in accordance with the Food Law Code of Practice.

Food Interventions at primary production premises are carried out mainly by suitably trained and qualified animal health officers and details of interventions are included in the annual Feed Service Plan.

The Food Standards intervention frequencies are detailed in the Food Law Code of Practice.

The Service is currently transitioning to the new Food Standards Delivery Model and intervention frequencies will be determined by a compliance assessment and inherent risk profile for each premises as detailed on page 99 of the Food Law Code of Practice.

Food standards routine interventions

All businesses are risk-assessed for Trading Standards purposes based on the NTSB national risk assessment scheme. This allows enforcement activities to be targeted towards appropriate businesses and trade sectors.

In line with our approach in the previous four years in 2025/26 the NTSB risk assessment criteria of low, lower medium, upper medium and high will only be used partially to determine the enforcement activities included in the plan.

The NTSB Minimum Intervention Rating Intervals will not be followed in the case of premises rated Upper Medium, Lower Medium or Low risk due to the broader commitments of the Service, to other areas of work.

The service conducts routine interventions focusing on high-priority, high-risk premises to ensure resources are directed most effectively. This service has been committed to reviewing and updating existing risk bands on high-risk food businesses through a series of physical inspections and the use of alternative enforcement strategies followed by a desktop risk assessment. This year the service will carry out a similar level of high-risk food premises inspections with a total of 100 interventions split between physical inspections and the use of an alternative enforcement strategy.

Service planned interventions

High-risk premises

A rated high-risk premises – total of 100 interventions with a minimum of 50 on-site inspections and remainder carried out by use of alternative enforcement strategies.

Medium-/low-risk premises

B1 NTSB upper medium, B2 lower medium, C low-risk premises
Planned intervention indicative number – while no inspections are specifically programmed to low- or medium-risk food premises the service has two project areas of work that will involve sampling and/or inspections at a selection of these premises.

Food standards projects

The strategic assessment for 2025/26 identified the need to continue to prioritise work in relation to the presence of undeclared allergens in food. This continues to be of particular significance given the ongoing threat to consumers with specific dietary needs. Where complaints are received the service will prioritise food standards controls and undertake inspections and sampling to monitor allergen management systems and implement continuous improvements.

Last year this service completed a programme of planned market surveillance at catering premises and achieved its target of 75 food samples tested for the presence of undeclared allergens. This programme focused on food prepared to order at a range of food outlets including pubs, restaurants, cafes, takeaways and retail premises as well as premises that have previously failed analysis on the presence of undeclared allergens and returned a 27% failure rate. All businesses received follow-up interventions based on risk. This project included FSA funded directed sampling at fish and chip shops for allergens and speciation and all these samples were satisfactory.

Last year this service carried out a project targeting the retail sale of imported sweets, snacks and fizzy drinks. Unannounced food standards inspections were carried out at 28 premises to check compliance with food labelling, food composition and the general provisions applicable for food safety. 40 food samples were procured and all were non-compliant. Inspections revealed high levels of non-compliance in particular with the presence of unauthorised additives, labelling provisions and traceability. All non-compliances were dealt with by follow-up advice.

This year our service will carry out the following projects:

• Previous failed allergens samples – formal samples to be taken from 23 premises that previously failed for undeclared allergens.
• Targeted intelligence-led sampling at 60 catering premises
• 25 inspections at retailers selling meat and meat products using meat origin and production claims.
• 10 audits of online retailers selling health supplements, novel foods and cannabidiol (CBD) foods.

Food sampling

Sampling work for the Service for food standards for 2025/26 falls into four categories:

1. High-priority, high-risk inspections: officers will procure a sample from each high-risk inspection wherever possible to check for authenticity, undeclared allergens or other relevant food standards criteria.
2. Undeclared allergens: sampling at catering or retail establishments such as butchers and farm shops checking for undeclared allergens in food sold loose and prepared to order from a menu or display counter. This will include follow-up samples for unsatisfactory samples procured in 2024/5. Programme of sampling to include approximately 75 samples of prepared food from food premises preparing foods made or packed to order.
3. Food standards project sampling: where possible and appropriate as part of official controls, officers will procure samples of designated products checking compliance with import rules, labelling requirements and traceability.
4. Food complaint samples: common issues such as undeclared allergens, food authenticity, unauthorised additives, novel foods and CBD and other food safety issues continue to be priority areas of work and samples may be procured as part of an investigation.

The service will carry out sampling in response to consumer complaints or in accordance with areas of concern that have been identified as a result of intelligence received or resulting from previous work undertaken locally or nationally in these areas.

The service will assess the intelligence available throughout the year and may plan further project-based sampling if warranted.

Food complaints, service requests and advice to businesses

Trading Standards Investigations and Business Support teams receive enquiries requesting assistance or advice and complaints relating to undeclared allergens, general food labelling, health and nutrition claims, provenance claims, food authenticity and food descriptions.

All complaints received into the Service are risk scored and acted on where appropriate. The information is recorded for intelligence purposes and may be used to monitor and identify problem traders, consumer trends or assist future investigations. The information may also be used to determine intervention intervals and reports are generated to inform annual strategic assessments as part of annual Service Planning.

In 2024/25 the number of complaints and service requests received concerning food was as follows:

Service requests

New food business registrations continue to rise with a significant increase on notifications received last year. All new food businesses by law register with Environmental Health and we receive notifications of these registrations. We currently triage all notifications to enable us to prioritise high-risk premises and send out business advice to all newly registered food businesses.

We continue to work closely with our Primary Authority food businesses and work closely with the Food Standards Agency, the National Food Crime Unit and our partners in Environmental Health. The past year has also seen a marked increase in partnership working most notably with our regional local authority partners, the Food Standards Agency, National Food Crime Unit and Environmental Health. 

Complaints

Food information and the control of food allergens continue to be the most complained about food standards related issues with undeclared allergens posing the greatest risk to consumers. We have seen a rise in reports of food safety incidents as a result on undeclared allergens in food and these continue to be dealt with as a priority to investigate the cause and implement improvements in allergen management systems at food businesses. We have also seen an increase in the number of complaints about out-of-date food and the presence of unauthorised ingredients in food, particularly in relation to additives and novel foods. This is in part due to proactive project work tackling non-compliant imported foods but also a number of referrals from the Food Standards Agency.

Trading Standards provides comprehensive advice, guidance and support to food businesses to encourage legislative compliance and to promote a fair trading environment. During 2024/25 we carried out a social media and website campaign to support new food business enterprises offering bespoke business advice. We also carried out a market surveillance exercise to check if food businesses in our area are displaying the correct star rating under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. Out of 60 businesses checked only five businesses were not displaying the correct rating demonstrating a high level of compliance.

Business advice includes exhibitions, training, the Buy With Confidence and Made in Devon schemes, newsletters, website information, press releases and social media to inform traders and consumers of their rights and responsibilities in general, and in relation to specific current issues. During the Covid-19 pandemic the service evolved its business advice function to offer virtual training to businesses through the use of online webinars.

This also extends to:

• On-the-spot advice during routine visits and interventions.
• Advice to new food businesses.
• Business information/advice sheets.
• Responding to general enquiries.
• Providing training/seminars.

The Service operates a scheme known as Made in Devon which offers branding and promotional opportunities to businesses who satisfy scheme membership criteria. There are currently 11 food and drink businesses based in Devon that are members of this scheme. Qualified food officers provide a specialist consultancy service to auditors of the scheme which focuses on business compliance and authenticity of food origin claims. As part of the application process businesses receive tailored advice and support and each application will involve approximately 10 hours of a competent officer’s time.

Primary Authority scheme

The Service has a balanced approach towards law enforcement and promotes business membership of Primary Authority partnerships. These arrangements are entered into by businesses with local authorities throughout the UK. This places special emphasis on the legality of goods and services originating in Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay, thus helping businesses meet legal obligations without unnecessary expense.

Primary Authority agreements are in place with several Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay businesses including food businesses. Under a Primary Authority agreement, businesses contract with Heart of the South West Trading Standards for a service, the delivery of which is overseen by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. This service delivery is chargeable on a cost-recovery basis.

The Service adheres to good enforcement practice and is signed up to the Enforcement Concordat agreed between local and central government. In all enforcement decisions it abides by the Service’s Enforcement Policy which has been agreed by elected members of all four local councils that the Service is provided for and is available on request. It reflects the principles of the Enforcement Concordat and recognises that most businesses and traders want to comply with the law. It is also in accordance with the statutory Regulators Code issued by the Minister of State under section 22(1) of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006. However, if stronger action is necessary, investigations are undertaken in accordance with legal requirements and Home Office guidelines. Before instituting legal proceedings, the Service applies the Code for Crown Prosecutors to ensure decisions about prosecutions are made in a fair and consistent manner.

Heart of the West Trading Standards continues to support the Home Authority principle for any business that decides not to enter into the Primary Authority scheme. It ensures that Home Authority relationships with food manufacturers will be maintained and fostered, including intervention and sampling visits.

Food hygiene – primary production

The EU Food Hygiene Regulations applicable to primary production came into effect on 1 January 2006. The general principles of food hygiene legislation extend to all farms engaged in the primary production of food. Although there are some very limited exclusions, this includes stock and arable farms where any food crops are grown.

Food hygiene is usually the responsibility of Environmental Health, but as Trading Standards already carries out farm interventions for animal health and welfare, the responsibility of enforcing this legislation falls with Trading Standards.

All primary producers subject to an animal health intervention will receive a food hygiene intervention at the same time.

Feed/food safety incidents

All food and feed alerts are received from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) via the FSA “Smarter Communications” platform.

Action will depend on the nature of the incident and will be dealt with in accordance with the FSA Code of Practice.

Most of the food and feed alerts are for information only, but food and feed alerts for action may require immediate action to remove the food hazard from the food chain. These food and feed alerts can potentially have an impact on programmed interventions.

Trading Standards will co-ordinate action with Environmental Health in cases of joint responsibility.

Liaison with other organisations

Heart of the South West Trading Standards has close links with consumer groups and other community organisations and liaison arrangements exist with the police and other council services on community safety, and crime and disorder strategies. Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) have been agreed with district authority food authorities within the joint service area and a separate allergens MOU is being set up to ensure effective partnership working in relation to this key area of food safety work.

The Service works closely with the Food Standards Agency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the National Farmers Union on animal health and welfare issues. Other arrangements exist with anti-counterfeiting groups and HM Revenue and Customs and with Devon and Cornwall and Avon and Somerset police forces.

Co-ordination of activities was previously achieved at local, regional, national and European level through the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LG Regulation). New arrangements have not yet been confirmed but liaison groups still operate at regional level.

Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service is a member of Trading Standards South West (TSSW), which represents the 13 local authorities that cover the South West region and works to achieve harmony and consistency of approach across the region.

Food enforcement liaison exists with the district councils, the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU), the police, NHS and other relevant Devon and Somerset organisations.

Resources

Sampling budget

The overall budget contains specific sums for the costs associated with sampling and testing of goods and services. For 2025/26 the following budget has been set aside for this purpose:

Food testing and analysis: £25,000.

Food standards authorised officers

The current staffing levels for the Service are outlined in Appendix 2 of the Trading Standards Service Strategic Plan 2025/26 for the Service Structure. Annex 1 of this plan indicates the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) officers allocated to food standards work.

A total of 11 FTE officers are qualified to enforce the Food Safety Act in relation to high-risk businesses.

On average it is estimated that approximately 20% of these officers’ work is food related.

Food hygiene at primary production officers

There are 20 officers who currently carry out animal health interventions. On average it is estimated that approximately 30% of these officers’ work is animal health related.

Cross team and incident support

Members of staff are encouraged to work across teams and in other areas to enhance their skills and understanding of all functions of the Service.

However, further resources will be allocated in the event of an incident, emerging risks or investigation as necessary.

Organisational structure

The Head of Trading Standards has overall responsibility for the delivery of official food controls.

Service structure in relation to Official Food Standards:

• Trading Standards Leadership Group (0.1 full-time equivalent (FTE))
  • Lead Officer (0.2 FTE)
  • Intelligence and investigations (0.4 FTE)
  • Compliance (0.8 FTE)
  • Business and commercial (0.8 FTE)
  • Operational Support Team (0.1 FTE)
  • Total: 2.4 FTE

Staff learning and development

A mixture of formal courses, short courses and in-house training is undertaken, and a review of training undertaken ensures that the right training is chosen for any given situation.

A programme of qualification training is delivered in respect of the Trading Standards Institute’s qualification framework for all Trading Standards professionals. As a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic the majority of food officer training is now carried out online through a range of professional training providers.

Officers who are suitably qualified, experienced and competent to carry out the range of tasks and duties they are required to perform are authorised officers for the purposes of enforcing the provisions of the Food Safety Act, Food Hygiene at Primary Production Level and other food standards related
regulations, including the Official Feed and Food Controls Regulations. Authorisation of Food Law Enforcement Officers is controlled and audited.

Continuous professional development

All officers engaged in food standards enforcement complete their mandatory 10 hours of continuous professional development and 10 hours of ‘other professional matters’ each year through a variety of different training processes as well as self-learning.

Quality assessment

Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service assesses quality by the following means:

• Monitoring individual officer workloads and progress against allocated food work, carried out as part of their monthly one-to-one meetings with allocated team managers.
• Training requirements and targets are further assessed during annual and six-monthly appraisals.
• An annual review of competency and monitoring of quality of work to ensure consistency across the Service in completion of forms, entry onto databases and training needs for food officers as a whole is carried out by the Lead Officer in conjunction with team managers.

Review

A Service Performance Report which includes Food Standards is published annually.

A six-monthly performance report is made to the Joint Service Review Panel which includes the progress against food targets.

Operational targets are reviewed monthly at Trading Standards Leadership Group (TSLG) meetings.

Inspection and Sampling plans are reviewed by the Lead Officer on a quarterly basis in line with returns required for completion of funded work. Any issues will be brought to the attention of TSLG.

Areas for improvement in the Service’s Food Standards delivery are identified as:

• Continue with reviewing, updating and amalgamating of procedures and policies onto the Food Standards pages on the internal SharePoint site.
• Improve the quality of Food Standards interventions and the knowledge and experience of officers carrying out this work.
• Improve liaison and co-ordination with other authorities and agencies.
• Raise the profile of the Service with customers and Members.
• Continue to improve quality of data held on the database and improve reporting.