This week the Food Standards Agency (FSA) launched their national food hygiene rating scheme nationwide.  Finally, there’s no need to be concerned about the standard of food from that dodgy burger van in town, your local Chinese takeaway or that grotty-looking greasy cafe in your village!   Instead, you’ll be able to see the ‘scores on the doors’ for all food establishments, from shopping centers to high street pubs and restaurants.

The FSA, in partnership with local authorities, will assign stickers to restaurants, takeaways, cafes and supermarket for display on their shop front.  The stickers are bright green and black, and show a rating of 0 – 5 in the new national food hygiene rating scheme.

Early adopters of the food hygiene rating scheme published their ratings on line at food.gov.uk/ratings earlier this year.   The outstanding authorities are expected to join and post their scores over the coming months.

How it works:

After an inspection by the local council’s food safety officers, food establishments will receive their stickers for display, which will tell visiting consumers if the inspection found that ‘urgent improvement’ is necessary or if standards are ‘very good’.

The stickers feature five circled numbers, with that particular establishment’s rating clearly highlighted (see picture: right).

Food safety officers will check how hygienically food is handled, how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored. They’ll also look at the condition of the building, its facilities and how it manages food safety (for example, fridge temperatures and staff training).

The aim of this exercise, according to the FSA, is to cut reported one million food poisoning cases, which are reported every year.

The food hygiene rating system will help to reduce food poisoning cases by letting potential customers view establishments’ rating.  This should encourage owners to be more vigilant with their food hygiene practices and allow people the opportunity to reward highly rated establishments with their custom.

The roll out of this scheme replaces the many ‘local’ schemes many authorities operated across the UK, as many of the grading schemes were inconsistent (different methods and symbols).  The new scheme will help to avoid confusion and provide clarity and consistency for customers.

A high proportion of surveyed members of the public  (86%) believe that food hygiene standards are very important when they’re eating out.

In addition, 23% of people indicated that they’ve sent back undercooked poultry when eating out.

Dead cockroaches, mouse droppings and filthy kitchen equipment lead to a failed inspection for T.G.I Friday’s flagship branch in Covent Garden.

The Covent Garden branch was closed down for six days last year, and in August the branch was ordered to pay a £30,000 fine after Environmental Health Officers found mouse droppings in a bag of sugar, declared the bar area unhygienic and found that that the restaurant wasn’t providing hot water for customers in hand basins.

Mouse infestation:

The council sent Environmental Health Officers to the Covent Garden branch of T.G.I Friday’s after receiving six separate complaints from the restaurant’s customers, after they’d spotted mice outside the establishment.  When the case was taken to court, it emerged that staff had known about the mouse infestation for over one year before the Environmental Health Officers visited.

The prosecutor, Felicia Davy said:

“The floors and the kitchen were filthy and a pile of cockroaches was found in a drawer.  It was clearly a breeding ground for rodents.”

The company admitted to six charges of breaching food hygiene laws.

Councillor Daniel Astaire, cabinet member for Community Safety, said:

“These were appalling hygiene breaches, particularly for such a renowned restaurant chain which frankly, should have known better. We hope this serves as a lesson to all food businesses that such poor standards are not acceptable and that we will always push for the strongest possible punishment against offenders.

“The restaurant industry is a vital part of our economy, and we will not tolerate any behaviour which could jeopardise it or the safety of our millions of visitors.”

Clean up:

The restaurant was allowed to reopen after the six-day closure period, only after spending £66,000 on a clean up of the kitchens.  It’s been reported that inspectors caught 65 mice from the American-themed restaurant last July during the clean up.

The Covent Garden restaurant seems to have got its reputation back on track, as last week the branch held the ‘ T.G.I Friday’s UK Bartender Championship’, which saw Manchester local Adam Friend win the final.  He’ll now go on to take part in the European Championships, representing the UK.

Don’t risk having to pay £96,000!

£66,000 for the clean up + £30,000 fine = a very expensive mistake.  Ensure your staff are properly trained in food hygiene, train them online and receive a certificate the next working day!  Click here to learn more about our food hygiene certificates.

Study shows that ‘bags for life’ could pose a threat to shoppers’ health.

Earlier this year a joint study by the University of Arizona and Limo Loma University found that although reusable shopping bags were better for the environment, they’re not better for shoppers’ health.

Random shoppers’ bags were tested in Tuscon, LA and San Francisco, where researchers found that the reusable grocery bags harbored harmful bacteria, including E.coli.

Consumers were unaware of the risks, with a staggering 97% of shoppers admitting that they have never washed or bleached out their reusable bags between shopping trips.

Harmful bacteria on produce is usually killed when items are cooked before eating, but the nature of the reusable bags means that one week the bag may be used for meat and the next, fruit.  Anybody who ingests the bacteria could suffer from unpleasant side effects, but young children, elderly people and pregnant women are most at risk.

E.coli was detected in half the bags sampled during the research.

E.coli is found in the intestines of humans and animals, and it is passed on through faeces.  It can survive in the environment.  It is usually transferred to humans by ingesting it through contaminated water or through contaminated food, such as uncooked meat.

The Government’s anti-waste watchdog, ‘Wrap’ estimates that there are hundreds of millions of bags for life in use in the UK.  A spokesman said: “Recently there have been concerns in the press that there are health risks from reusing shopping bags in relation to poor hygiene. WRAP recommends that only clean bags in a good state of repair are used and that bags contaminated with food should be cleaned before reusing. Bags that are in poor state of repair should be recycled at carrier bag recycling points.”

Unsafe levels of harmful bacteria were found in over half the clothes tested in a recent study by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Dirty dishcloths can lead to severe cases of food poisoning if they’re not regularly changed or disinfected. High levels of bacteria on dishcloths can indicate poor food hygiene practices.

The HPA tested 133 cloths from 120 fast-food kitchens and restaurants in the North East of England and found that a staggering 56% of cloths contained unacceptable levels of bacteria, including Enterobacteriaceae, E. colo, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria.

Listeria, in particular, is dangerous as even low levels can cause serious illnesses to vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, the elderly and those with an impaired immune system.

Recommended advice

It’s recommended that restaurants should use disposable cloths and change them regularly, though the study found that only a third of restaurants and take-away kitchens were adhering to this advice.  The remaining 60% of establishments used re-usable dishcloths, with 15% unsure as to how often these cloths should be replaced.

Cross-contamination

Almost a quarter of cloths sampled had been used in both ready-to-eat and raw food preparation areas, leading to cross-contamination and the spread of harmful bacteria.

Disinfection of cloths

A high amount of establishments only disinfected their clothes every 10-24 hours and a number of participants admitted to leaving it longer than 24 hours.

Anything that comes into contact with dirty dishcloths will serve as a breeding ground for bacteria.  This could include employee’s hands, work surfaces and any equipment wiped by the cloths.

Dr John Piggott, the lead author from the HPA’s Food, Water and Environmental Microbiology laboratory in Leeds said:

“Although many [restaurants and takeaway kitchens] disinfected their cloths using bleach or other disinfectants, soaking does not remove the food on which the bacteria grow.  The disinfectant qualities of bleach do wear off after a period of time so soaking large amounts of cloths together can result in bacteria contaminating more cloths and creating more potential problems.”

“All of the premises in our study were given advice on how to practice better hygiene and they will be revisited to make sure that procedures have improved.”

This week Starbucks has revealed plans to offer a range of NVQs to baristas working in their outlets in the UK.  The training scheme, which will cost the company several million pounds, will improve customer experience, boost morale and help ease high levels of staff turn over, plus give staff a range of transferable skills to use in the future.

Staff will be able to earn NVQ qualifications in areas related to their roles, such as food hygiene or they can apply for funding from the ‘Starbucks pot’ to gain new skills in different areas, such as learning a language.

The NVQ in food hygiene training scheme will begin next summer, but will only be open to supervisors for the first two years.  Then the scheme will open up to junior staff too.

Following in the footsteps of companies like McDonalds, Starbucks hopes to do the training in house and award it’s own nationally recognised NVQ qualifications.

There will also be a course for senior managers at the Ashridge Business School, which will be an MBA-style course.

‘Best Barista’

In addition to the NVQ in food hygiene programme and the MBA-style qualification for managers, Starbucks is also introducing the ‘Best Barista’ recruitment-training scheme.  This will teach store managers how to spot potential employees that share the Starbucks set of ‘values’.  They want to recruit staff that are committed to community work, volunteering and of course, have a real passion for coffee.

Talking about the new schemes, Darcy Wilson-Rymer, Managing Director for the UK and Ireland Starbucks coffee shops says:  “When we were devising our new strategy, we asked our partners what mattered to them and they told us loud and clear that they wanted the opportunity to build a career at Starbucks and gain transferable skills.  It’s good news for our customers who want to see familiar faces, but it’s also the right thing to do at a time when coffee shops are providing so many jobs.”

Starbucks employs over 9,000 members of staff in the UK but had to cut roughly 150 roles in Britain during the recession.

Don’t work for Starbucks but want a food hygiene qualification?  You can get a food hygiene certificate in as little as two hours by visiting our website: click here.

Food production giants, Premier Foods have been fined nearly 17,000 after a mouse was found baked into a loaf of its Hovis ‘Best of Both’ bread.

Stephen Forse, a father of three young children, found the mouse crushed into the loaf while buttering bread to make sandwiches for his children.  The animal’s tail was missing, raising fears that it may have already been eaten.

Mr Forse thought, initially, that the dark colour he spotted on the crust was just some dough that hadn’t mixed properly, but on closer inspection he noticed the mouse’s fur.  Quietly, he put the loaf to one side and made his children a new sandwich from a different loaf of bread, this time cautiously checking each slice thoroughly before using it.

Not hungry

Mr Forse said that he was ‘quite shaken’ from the incident.  Understandably, Forse couldn’t eat after spotting the mouse and told his daughter he ‘wasn’t feeling hungry’ as they sat around the table to eat lunch.

Mr Forse then gave the contaminated loaf to environmental heath officers who took it away for forensic analysis.  Later, Premier Foods pleaded guilty to failing to ensure all stages of food production were protected against contamination and for failing to maintain a robust pest management system at its bakery in London.

99% of British households buy Premier Foods

This news has come as a shock to many people, as it’s estimated that 99% of British households buy products produced by Premier Foods.  Though we can take comfort in the fact that Premier Foods maintain that there was no evidence of mice within the bakery and there isn’t a history of similar issues.  Production ceased on the line until a thorough investigation was conducted.  Premier Foods maintain this was an ‘isolated incident.’

Vermin

Mice are vermin, which carry diseases including salmonella.  If contracted, salmonella can lead to severe diarrhoea, sickness and fever.  This can be fatal to children, the elderly and those with a compromised immune system.

Thankfully, neither Mr Forse nor his family suffered ill health from eating contaminated bread from the loaf.

Mouse’s tail

It’s still not known what happened to the mouse’s tail, Mr Forse commented:

”Had it fallen off prior to the bread being wrapped or had any of my family eaten it with another slice of bread on a previous day?”

You can read the original story here, at the Small World News Service and see a photograph of the mouse-contaminated loaf.

They can get certified online.  It’s a legitimate certificate AND it’ll be posted the next day! Find out more: click here.

Imagine the following scenario:  You’re on holiday in Bangkok.  You see an authentic market selling delicious fruits at cheap prices.  You’re hungry and the produce looks tempting.  You go over and grab something to eat.  But in this idyllic daydream, you’re probably not imagining the infested bacteria, antifungal agents or dangerous chemicals that are on the fruit’s surface, invisible to the eye.  You may not be able to see them, but rest assured: they’re probably going to ruin the rest of your holiday by making you ill.

It’s a harsh reality that many tourists have had to face in Bangkok over recent years.

Clamping down:

But  you’ll be pleased to know that authorities are clamping down on poor food hygiene practices in the city.

This week, authorities have declared that Vendors selling fresh and preserved fruit in Bangkok will risk prison sentences and fines if their produce is contaminated with bacteria, chemicals or other agents that shouldn’t be present.

This clampdown comes after authorities tested 153 samples from 38 different vendors in the greater Bangkok area. Over 67% of the tested sample had unsafe levels of the Coliform bacteria present.  16.2% were dyed with unsafe amounts of synthetic pigments and over 40% of the sample contained risky levels of anti-fungal agents.

Processed fruits didn’t fare well in the tests either.  Over 60% of the processed fruits sample contained dangerous chemicals.  Dark green and red pickled guavas were found to be the most contaminated fruits tested in the survey.

The survey, conducted by Authorities from the PM’s Office, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Medical Sciences and the Consumer Protection Board, also found that venders were not observing proper food hygiene measures when preparing fruit for customers.

Warning to consumers:

Poor food hygiene practices may leave both tourists and residents open to a number of nasty intestinal problems, including diarrhoea.

As such, consumers are being warned to stay away from coloured fruits and to ask vendors to handle and prepare fruit in a hygienic manner.

The authorities will be retesting the vendors next month.  If any produce is still contaminated vendors could face up to two years in prison and/or a large fine.

Images used for decorative purposes only, under CC: Malyousif

Make sure you comply with food hygiene laws!

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Get food hygiene certificates for your team online:

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This week the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) announced that food businesses are cutting back on food safety and hygiene training, possibly to the detriment of the general public’s health.

The CIEH reported the shocking findings after sending a survey out to over 5,000 food safety trainers and training centres.

The survey was sent out to all CIEH trainers during the fist week of August 2010.

Over half of food safety trainers thought that business was being impacted by the poor economic climate, while 70% of food safety trainers noted that it was likely to be ‘cost cutting’ measures that have caused businesses to stop investing in training.

The CIEH are calling this situation a potential ‘food poisoning time bomb’; they’re worried that the economic downturn, cost saving measures and cuts in expenditure are going to lead to the public being put at risk as it’s more likely that poor food hygiene could lead to outbreaks of food poisoning.

David Kidney of the CIEH says:

“In extreme cases failure to comply with food safety legislation can even result in a prison sentence and/or being prohibited from running a food business in future. In over a quarter of the prosecutions which have led to the business manager being prohibited since January 2009, failure to comply with the legislation on instruction and/or training was one of the offenses.”

If you’re thinking of cutting your expenditure and sacrificing food training certificates for your staff, you should know that there are many cost-effective training programs available online.

The CIEH are reporting that the growth of online food safety training solutions has recently risen, and we’re projecting that this is related to the cost cutting measures!

The CIEH gives some great advice though, if you’re thinking of purchasing food hygiene training online, you should listen to it!

“Make sure the course you choose is fit for your purpose and that you are not wasting your precious resources on cowboy companies.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!

Food Hygiene Training

If you’d like affordable, accredited food hygiene training, contact us today.  We even offer discounts on multiple training courses, so all of your staff can hold a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate.

Last week the Food Standard’s Agency wrote to all the local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to inform them of a brand new launch this autumn.

From the 1st of October the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) will be rolled out by all 22 local authorities in Wales and by many ‘early adopter’ local authorities in England too.

The new scheme has been re-branded for the launch, which aims to make the food hygiene ratings system easier for consumers to use.  It’s been reported that the old ‘star’ rating has gone and a numerical scale will take its place.

Catriona Steward, Head of the Food Hygiene Ratings Team said:

“We are very pleased with the look and feel that the new branding gives to the scheme as it makes it easy for consumers to see at a glance what the hygiene rating is.”

The new ratings scheme is a welcomed development for most restaurant and cafe owners, who find the current service confuses consumers.

The Swindon Reporter last week quoted Phil Saunter calling the system “confusing”:

“Customers thought it had something to do with the quality of the food whereas it was just about how clean the premises were.  You had Michelin starred places only getting two stars because they didn’t keep their fridge temperature records properly, but McDonald’s getting five stars for instance. “

But Mr Saunter also thinks the total re-branding is a little unnecessary:

“They are also going to be changing all the branding, signs and letterhead, which sounds to me like a complete waste of money, especially when the Government announced that it is going to scrap the FSA.”

Swindon isn’t one of the early adopters of the new scheme and Phil Thomas, head of commercial regulation at Swindon Council, said:

“We will explore this option further and see if it is something we wish to adopt in Swindon when clearer proposals have been presented by the FSA.”

What do you think?

Are you happy the FSA are re-launching the scheme or do you think it’s just a waste of time and money?

Let us know in the comments!

Food Hygiene Certificates:

If you own a restaurant or cafe, you may wish to ensure your team are fully trained so your own establishment scores highly on the ‘Scores on the Doors’ scheme.  You can get a food hygiene certificate in as little as two hours by visiting our website: click here.

Four years ago, the Food Standards Agency recommended the creation of a set of principles to apply to front-of-pack labelling, to help consumers make quick, healthy and informed choices regarding nutrition. Although the majority of the food industry now adheres to some form of FOP labelling, there are still no set principles – making the conflicting labelling somewhat confusing for consumers. For example, altthough all FOP labels reflect the same nutrients – salt, sugars, fat and saturated fat – various schemes use colours other than the recommended green-yellow-red traffic light system. This means it takes longer for cosumers to compare product at a glance, defeating part of the point of clear FOP labelling.

However, in 2009, in independent study discovered the most popular and ease-to-use combination of labelling was the traffic light system with the words ‘high, medium and low’ and % Guideline Daily Amounts. Hence, this week the Food Standards Agency will dicuss proposals for a unified, but flexible system of FOP labelling that will require manufacturers and retailers to use a combination of these labelling techniques. Chief Executive, Tim Smith, said the FSA “appreciate and understand that food businesses are starting from different positions. Our proposals respond to what consumers want but also provide some flexibility for business.”