 | 11 December 2009 Accessibility help Text only |
| |
| BBC Homepage | | |
| |||
| Contact Us Like this page? Send it to a friend! | | |
EastYou are in: Inside Out > East > Restaurant hygiene  How do you know the food is safe? Restaurant hygieneFood poisoning accounts for several hundred deaths a year and nearly one in five restaurants don’t meet hygiene standards. Inside Out takes a look at a scheme in Norwich designed to improve the situation. Since 2005 Norwich City Council has been running a system of awarding up to five stars to restaurants, grading them on food safety and hygiene standards. 10 food safety tipsPut away chilled and frozen food in your fridge or freezer as soon as you can. Prepare and store raw and cooked food separately – keep raw or uncooked food (especially meat and fish) at the bottom of your fridge in a covered container Keep the coldest part of your fridge at between 0-5C – use a fridge thermometer Check 'use-by' dates – and don’t use food after the recommended period Keep pets away from food, dishes and worktops Wash your hands thoroughly – before preparing food, after going to the toilet and after Keep the kitchen clean – wash worktops and utensils between handling food to be cooked and food that’s not going to be cooked Don’t eat food containing uncooked eggs – keep eggs in the fridge Make sure food is fully cooked – follow the instructions on the pack. If you reheat food make sure it’s piping hot Keep hot food hot and cold food cold – don’t leave it standing around It's known as the 'Scores on the Doors' system and the results are published on a website. The council’s food safety inspectors police the law in terms of food hygiene and safety for around 1,300 businesses in the city. And inspectors believe that since it was introduced they scheme has really improved standards. The system tries to help restaurants improve rather than shutting them down.  Has the five star scheme improved standards? 'Remarkable result'Jaan Stanton is one of Norwich’s inspectors. He says the improvements have been impressive: "We have seen a two-thirds decrease in premises getting no stars and the number of premises getting four or five has doubled. "Now, approximately 600 premises in Norwich get four of five stars and that is a remarkable result in such a short time." Nearly half the local authorities in the country have adopted the scheme. But not everyone’s happy. Enforcing the lawThe Food Standards Agency wants to scrap the five star systems and have one national scheme. It prefers a three star system or a simple pass and fail. The British Hospitality Association supports the pass and fail. John Dyson from the Association says he can’t understand how any restaurants or catering premises which fall so far beneath the law can still be trading:  Inspectors are there to enforce the law "Environmental health officers should not see themselves as Egon Ronay. "They are not out there giving an awards system or stars. "They are out there enforcing the law and why shouldn’t restaurants be required to comply with the law and inform consumers accordingly." Little incentiveBut, supporters of the five star system say, a pass/fail would only force restaurants to meet basic legal requirements with little incentive to improve. The country’s leading microbiologist, Sir Hugh Pennington from the University of Aberdeen says that on balance he favours a five star system. He believes that food safety should be up there with price and quality of service when people choose a restaurant. The Food Standards Agency declined to talk to Inside Out. last updated: 13/11/2008 at 11:04 SEE ALSOYou are in: Inside Out > East > Restaurant hygiene |
| | About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy |
