Food Standards Agency Christmas warning
The Food Standards Agency is urging diners to check hygiene ratings before booking Christmas meals.
Nearly half (46%) of people the UK never check food hygiene ratings before they sit down to eat out.
That’s the figure reported by a Food Standards Agency (FSA) poll which also reveals that, despite over a third of those questioned saying they suspect they might have contracted food poisoning from a restaurant or takeaway in the past, we’re still not checking up on the quality of hygiene at the places we eat.
A Christmas warning
The FSA is encouraging people to look before booking a meal out, particularly with the Christmas season just around the corner.
One in five of us will be booking a festive meal over the next fortnight. If you’re among them, the FSA says you should use its online hygiene rating tool. This lets you find out the hygiene standards of restaurants before you pick up the phone to book.
Catriona Stewart, Head of the Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme, said that although people were spending “a lot of time and effort planning festive meals to make sure their family and friends have a good time… very few make food hygiene a top priority.”
“If you’re out and about, you can also check for the green and black ratings sticker on display and if you can’t see one just ask.”
Learn more
If you’re unfamiliar with hygiene ratings, read Scores on the Doors: how food hygiene ratings work for an overview. To put it quickly, restaurants are scored from 0 to 5, with 5 being ‘Very Good’ and 0 meaning ‘Urgent Improvement Necessary’.
There is currently no law in England or Northern Ireland that makes it compulsory to display hygiene ratings in restaurants or takeaways, but there is now in Wales. Scotland uses a different system.
Restaurants that score highly usually display their score prominently, so you’d be wise to be wary if you can’t see a sticker and make use of the online checker. It may just be that the owner has forgotten to put it up – but it’s more likely they don’t want the world to know how bad their hygiene was on the day the inspectors called.
You might also like:
Stricter food regulations for Wales while rest of the UK falls behind
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature