The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) helps consumers make educated choices about where to eat and shop for food by giving them information about hygiene standards.
Following the Council's recent appointment of an Environmental Health Officer, the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme will be re-introduced and rolled out to all applicable businesses across the Isles of Scilly. Inspections will be starting in the next two weeks.
Ratings are given to places where you can eat out such as restaurants, takeaways, cafés, sandwich shops, pubs, and hotels. They are also given to establishments such as schools, hospitals and residential care homes as well as places where you shop for food, such as supermarkets, bakeries, and delicatessens. Establishments that pose a low risk to people’s health are not given a rating, for example, newsagents selling only wrapped sweets. Childminders and businesses that offer caring services at home are also not given ratings.
A food safety officer inspects a business to check that it meets the requirements of food hygiene law. At the inspection, the officer will check:
1. How hygienically the food is handled: how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored
2. The condition of the structure of the buildings: the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities
3. How the business manages what it does to make sure food is safe so that the officer can be confident that standards will be maintained in the future
Each of these three elements is essential for making sure that food hygiene standards meet requirements and that the food served or sold is safe to eat. The hygiene standards found at the time of inspection are then rated on a scale.
If the top rating is not given, the officer will explain to the person who owns or manages the business what improvements they need to make and what action they can take to improve their hygiene rating.
To get the top rating of ‘5’, businesses must do well in all three elements. Those with ratings of ‘0’ are very likely to be performing poorly in all three elements and are likely to have a history of serious problems. There may, for example, be a lack of sufficient cleaning and disinfection, and there may not be a good enough systems of management in place to check and record what the business does to make sure the food is safe.
In order to ensure that the scheme is fair to businesses, it has been designed to include a number of safeguards. These are:
• a right to appeal
• a ‘right to reply’
• an opportunity to request a re-visit when improvements have been made in order to be re-assessed for a ‘new’ rating.
If the owner or manager of the business is unhappy with their rating, they should talk to the Local Authority food safety officer. They can also use one of the above-mentioned safeguards. The standard letters can be found on the Council's food hygiene page.
Good food hygiene benefits us all and improvements in this area can have a positive effect on the islands' reputation as a holiday destination. We hope you will take the opportunity to work with us to ensure the highest possible hygiene standards. If you have any feedback or queries on this issue, please don't hesitate to contact us: 01720 424317 | environmentalhealth@scilly.gov.uk