Food Safety personal data

The kind of information we hold about you regarding food safety

In respect of our Food Safety Team:

The kind of information we hold about you

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information:

  • As regards where we carry out or deal with food sampling, food safety requests, inspections, prosecutions, business registration, approved premises or investigate/serve notice as regards infectious diseases:
    • Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone number and personal email addresses – these are normally the details of a business rather than relating to an individual’s private life, however on a very limited number of occasions a business may operate from a home address and so this would be recorded
  • In addition, in relation to where we deal with food prosecutions or infectious diseases:
    • Date of birth
    • Gender
  • In addition, in relation to where we deal with infectious diseases:
    • Marital status

We may also collect, store and use the following "special categories" of more sensitive personal information:

  • Information about your racial or ethnic origin (where we are dealing with infectious diseases)
  • Information about your sex life and sexual orientation (where we are dealing with infectious diseases)
  • Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records (where we are dealing with infectious diseases)
  • Information about criminal convictions and offences (where we are dealing with food prosecutions)

How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information about applicants from the following sources:

  • You, the applicant
  • As stipulated by the Food Standards Agency (where part of a formal food sampling programme)
  • Public Health England, your GP or Hospital (where relevant to infectious disease)
  • PACE interview (where relevant to food prosecutions)

How we will use information about you

We will use the personal information we collect about you for the purposes of:

  • Carrying out food business regulation including the legal duty to register and monitor food premises
  • Carrying out Food Safety Inspections under the Food Safety Act 1990 and associated regulations
  • Carrying out food sampling investigations in the interest of public health or in line with the requirements of the Food Safety Act 1990 and associated regulations
  • Approving food premises under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 and European regulation
  • Completing/investigating requests for service regarding food premises in the interests of public health
  • Carrying out the Council’s statutory duties under the Food Safety Act 1990 when investigating food complaints/requests for service
  • Investigating food borne disease/infectious disease to identify the cause, and control the spread, of infection to the community
  • Complying with the legal obligation to investigate reports from external bodies or from members of the public regarding food poisoning

We need to use the personal information we collect about you because:

  • It is necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations and pursuant to the law as referred to above; and/or
  • It is necessary for us to perform our official functions referred to above which has a clear basis in the law also referred to above

How we use particularly sensitive personal information

We will not routinely use your particularly sensitive personal information, however where we do so this will be carried out in the following ways:

  • We will use information about your health where it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of law, where this is proportionate to the aim pursued. In this regard the Council investigates food poisoning and some notifiable diseases to identify the cause and control the spread of infection in the community – the Council has a legal obligation to investigate these and reports from the public regarding food poisoning under legislation, for instance the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984
  • We will use information about your ethnicity or your sex life/orientation where it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of law, where this is proportionate to the aim pursued. This would be where it is relevant to an investigation being carried out pursuant to the Council’s specific statutory duties, for instance if an individual has come back from visiting family abroad with some form of infectious or food borne disease we may have had reason to discuss ethnicity. Similarly if we had a notifiable disease which was blood borne then we may gain information relevant surrounding sex life as this could be pertinent

Information about criminal offences or alleged criminal offences

Where we carry out a food safety prosecution we envisage that we will process information about criminal offences or alleged criminal offences.

We will only do this where we are required to do so pursuant to reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of law in order to comply with our specific statutory duties in relation to the carrying out of food prosecutions and provided that doing so would be proportionate to the aim pursued.

We have in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.

Data sharing

Why might you share my personal information?

We will only share your personal data with other officers within the Council where they have a business need to know. This may involve sharing your data with our Customer Services team (who act as the first port of call for information), our wider Environmental Health and Housing department and, where relevant, our Legal Services team.

We are required to publish a certain amount of information about food safety on our public registers via our website and the Food Standards Agency Ratings Scheme Portal but there will not normally be any personal data published.

Personal data relating to food sampling or infectious disease may, where appropriate and in line with our statutory functions or legal obligations outlined above, be shared with Public Health England, the FEW Lab and/or Porton Down.