Eating out? Getting food in? Check the food hygiene rating
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme helps make it easier for consumers to choose places with good hygiene when you’re eating out or shopping for food. The food hygiene rating tells you about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other places you eat out, as well as in supermarkets and other food shops. The food hygiene rating is not a guide to food quality.
This is a new scheme run by local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in partnership with the Food Standards Agency. The scheme replaces the local star rating scheme called ‘Scores on the Doors ‘ and it means that information about food businesses in Gateshead will be available nationally when Gateshead Council officially goes live on 2 April 2012. Many other councils are joining the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme and soon you should be able to check hygiene ratings in most local authority areas at www.food.gov.uk/ratings|
About food hygiene ratings
Food businesses in Gateshead are inspected by an Environmental Health Officer and given a rating which tells the consumer about the standards of hygiene found at the time of the inspection.
There are six ratings. These are on a scale from ‘0’ at the bottom, which means that urgent improvement is necessary, to ‘5’ at the top, which means that the business was found to have ‘very good’ hygiene standards.
Every business should be able to reach the top rating because the scheme does not create any burdens on business beyond legal compliance and a business can improve its rating by its own actions.
Spotting good food hygiene
When you eat out or shop for food, look out for a sticker on the window or door, or a certificate on display, showing you the food hygiene rating for that business.
Businesses are encouraged to display these stickers and certificates at their premises in places where you can easily see them when you visit.
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Very Good
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Good
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Generally satisfactory
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Improvement necessary
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Needs major improvement
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Needs urgent improvement
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The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is new. This means that not all food businesses will have a hygiene rating yet. If the food outlet you want to visit isn’t displaying
a sticker or certificate, you can speak to staff about the business’s rating. You can also look up food hygiene ratings online at www.food.gov.uk/ratings|
What’s inspected?
The food safety officer inspecting a business checks how well the business is meeting the law on food hygiene by looking at:
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how hygienically the food is handled – how it is prepared, cooked, cooled and stored
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the condition of the structure of the buildings, including cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation, equipment and other facilities
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how the business manages and records what it does to make sure food is safe
The food safety officer will explain to the person who owns or manages the business if there are any improvements needed, what they are and how they
can achieve a higher rating.
Does your favourite restaurant, takeaway or food shop have good hygiene standards? Check it out at www.food.gov.uk/ratings