Why is food hygiene so important?

It is important that people can confidently eat the food they buy without fear of becoming ill or even dying from a disease contracted through the food. We know how food can make people ill, and we know what we need to do to prevent this happening. This has led to a number of regulations that all enterprises producing, storing, preparing or selling food within Denmark must comply with. The legal requirements are based on our knowledge of food-borne diseases and what we can do to avoid them.

The regulations stipulate what each enterprise must do to ensure that the food sold does not make customers ill. The regulations also cover other important issues such as protecting consumers from deceptive marketing and ensuring food products are labelled in a way that permits them to be traced and recalled if there is a suspected danger to health.

These are the regulations you will learn about in this food legislation module. The regulations are written down in a number of acts and executive orders, such as the Danish Food Act, the Executive Order on Authorisation, and the EU Regulation on Food Hygiene.