The Food Standards Agency has launched the Play it Safe campaign, to raise awareness of food safety during the London 2012 Games. The Agency is working with food businesses and food safety enforcement officers to ensure all food sold, cooked and eaten during the Games is safe.
The first strand of the campaign focuses on the Food Safety Squad, the 10 environmental health officers acting as ambassadors for food safety. They represent the hundreds of environmental health officers around the country who are carrying out vital work to keep visitors to the Games safe and healthy.
The campaign highlights the Agency measures being undertaken to minimise the risk of food safety incidents occurring during London 2012. These include a food safety coaching programme for small businesses in Olympic areas that are in need of improvement; funding and training initiatives for local authorities in Olympic areas; and providing extra equipment for sampling and checks on cleaning.
Sarah Appleby, Head of Enforcement and Local Authority Delivery at the FSA, said: ‘London 2012 is about celebrating everything that the UK has to offer, and food plays an important part. We want all food business owners to ensure that everything they sell is the best it can be. It will be an exceptionally busy time for many food businesses, and we’re providing extra support and advice to make sure they’re well prepared to meet the challenge.’
