Billingsgate Market in London, the UK’s largest inland market selling 25,000 tonnes of fish and fish products a year, has instituted a set of formal requirements for improving hygiene and other related issues on its premises.
The Billingsgate Market Code of Practice, which came into force at the beginning of May, aims to ensure that the market not only meets the latest standards for ensuring the quality of the fish and shellfish sold on the market, but keeps ahead of what could be required in the future.
It was an initiative agreed by four parties – Tower Hamlets environmental health department (the enforcement authority for hygiene regulations at Billingsgate Market), the London Fish Merchants’ Association (fish merchants representative body), the Fishmongers’ Company and the City of London Corporation (landlord and market management).
To put the code into practice, the Fishmongers’ Company’s chief inspector at the market and his staff – there are three fish inspectors on the market during trading hours – have carried out a major audit of the premises and drawn up an action plan. “This is continually evolving,” says Malcolm Macleod, market superintendant, who is effectively Billingsgate Market’s chief executive. “We have a list of requirements we are working through.”
These include deep cleaning mostly of the market’s external areas. “We will lead by example,” Mr MacLeod adds. “It is a difficult site to manage being quite windblown. However, we are determined to do it.”
Audits
Audits are now being carried out on individual merchants at the market at their request and the merchants are willingly agreeing to do whatever they have been asked. These can be quite simple things such as staff putting on clean white coats every day, but this boosts the impression of the market given to buyers.
The merchants formally agreed to the requirements stipulated in the code of practice when they signed their new 10-year protected leases on 1 May, following their buy-out of the former unionised porters’ contracts. There is therefore an obligation for the merchants to comply with the requirements, but this is not causing any problems.
“There is a good feedback,” says Mr MacLeod. “Everyone is rowing the boat in the same direction.”
The ‘new’ Billingsgate Market in Canary Wharf was built in 1982 – the market used to be sited near Fishmongers’ Hall close to the City of London – and many improvements, such as non slip flooring and automated door entries, have already been carried out to comply with EU hygiene legislation.
Major new projects in the pipeline, such as erecting a new roof over the entire premises and providing extra storage and order picking premises for the merchants, will greatly add to these.
This work will cost around £4 million, but Mr Macleod, says: “The money exists; there will be no holding back, no stopping us. Funding will come from different sources including the Corporation of London and, hopefully, the European Fisheries Fund.”
The introduction of the code of practice, coupled with the end of unionized porters plus this multi- million pound investment, all point to an optimistic future for Billingsgate Market. “We have got a lot going for us,” says Mr MacLeod.
