Environmental Health and Health Equalities Services

Safeguarding and improving public health and safety.

We provide a wide range of services, to find out more about a particular service, please click on the link on the right.

Recent News

National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

Have you ever wondered how hygienic the kitchen of your favourite place to eat out is? Or the shop where you buy your weekly groceries? As of June 2011, our Environmental Health Service has started to roll out a scheme to help consumers make informed choices about the places where they eat out or buy food from, by letting them know how well food businesses did on their last food hygiene inspection.

Each food business is inspected regularly by Environmental Health Officers from the Commercial Team of the Service, and as part of the inspection each business is given a rating for the standard of hygiene found at the premises. This covers;

How hygienically the food is handled – safe food preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage.
The condition and structure of the premises – cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities.
How the business manages and documents food safety – procedures for safe food production, staff training records, evidence of pest control, daily management checks etc.

There are six possible ratings a premises can be awarded, with the top rating meaning the business has achieved a very good standard of compliance with the law. Any business, no matter how small, should be able to achieve the top rating.
When we have finished the inspection we will provide the business with a certificate or sticker which they will be encouraged to display on the premises. We are also putting the rating on the national ratings website so that, as premises are added, you will be able to look up most food businesses in East Devon and see what their score is.
The Team are introducing the scheme as we carry out the routine inspections and the businesses are added to the database as we visit them. It will probably take about four years for the majority of food businesses in East Devon to be added to the database.
Some businesses will not be included, such as those where the personal name and address of the business owner would be made public, (such as childminders and small residential homes) and very low risk premises are also exempt from the scheme, so petrol stations selling food, or small bed and breakfast businesses would not be included.
At the moment more than 200 Councils across the country operate similar schemes. East Devon is now working in partnership with the Food Standards Agency and the other Devon Authorities as one of the first regions to take part in the new national scheme to make sure consumers get clear and consistent information where ever they are based.

Highlighting the work of Food Inspectors for school children

The Environmental Health Officers of the Commercail Team took part in the "11 Million Take Over Day" the Council organised on the 11th of November for year six primary school children. The Team took over the council kitchens for the day and spent some time creating Sam and Ellas Grotty Cafe, a "kitchen from hell" with out of date and 'off' food, cigarette ends and evidence of pest infestations. Some of the team acted out scenes of food preparation while creating some serious cross contamination risks and other examples of poor hygiene practices, and we asked the children to spot the hazards.

Neighbourhood Assessment
The Environment Protection Team are carrying out continuing joint ventures with a number of partners to find out whether the residents of East Devon have any concerns about their local area, and whether they think they are a good place to live.

Environmental Health staff, local Police Officers and Health Protection Agency staff have already carried out door to door surveys in seven of our larger towns. Recently we started surveys in some of the very small villages and out of the way hamlets across the district that could have greater problems accessing Coucil services, to see what sorts of problems they have, and how to help them solve them. The process has helped the various agencies in the District to improve communication and co-operation in dealing with issues.

You can view the results of all of the neighbourhood assessments, or if you would like more information on this please contact Debbie Challis on 01395 571570, or use the 'contact us online' form at the top of this page.

Environmental Health Customer Charter
Front cover of leaflet

We are determined to provide the best environmental health service possible to our businesses, residents and visitors in East Devon. You can download a copy of our Customer Charter (258KB - 22 October 2009 - PDF Help)