This section will be updated regularly, but to begin with, we believe the following areas will need some consideration:
Regulations
A Farmers' Market is a food handling retail outlet, consequently you and your stallholders must be aware of the general rules and regulations that might apply to yourselves as market organisers and the standards that your stallholders will need to comply with, for example, the requisite Food Safety and Trading Standards required by your local council.. The market could at some point be reviewed by Local Authority inspectors to ensure that minimum standards are adhered to, and they may make suggestions for improvements, they also have the powers to close the market, but so far, this hasn't been necessary in Kent.
Planning
You may also need to consult on any road closures or if there may be any impact on local traffic.
Ideally, one person in your committee should have sufficient knowledge of the legislation covering each of these areas and should attend a Food Hygiene course (often run by local councils) and then attend requisite refresher courses to keep up to date. It is also recommended that you should have someone attend a First Aid course.
Risk Assessment
As your market is open to the general public it is worthwhile undertaking a general risk assessment in order to identify and eliminate potential hazards, and further advice on this will be available from the Association on this website in the near future, but common sense about identifying likely hazards that might be around is a good starting point.
As a general rule, we would encourage market managers to establish good working relationships with their local councils to ensure that they are operating within the law at all times .
Insurance
All stallholders must have sufficient Public and Product Liability Insurance, and this will need monitoring on a regular basis by the market manager
It is also essential that your market is fully insured to protect you from potential accidents, and each market manager will need to satisfy themselves that this is in place.
The Association has negotiated an attractive individual market and County wide insurance package with the NFU (Head Office), which is available to members. For information about this please contact Bob Taylor.
The insurance package inlcudes -
Public Liability (with a £10 million indemnity limit)
Employers liability (*) (with a £10 million indemnity limit)
Money (theft up to £1000 during market hours)
Property (belonging to the market (up to £2500)
(*) Note: This is a legal requirement even if all members of your committee are volunteers they are classified as being 'employed'.
< Obligations : Legal and Other
