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 the South West, Easy and South East 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.”

Cookits are sets of cooking equipment for schools, designed to help children learn the basics of cooking. Each set has enough equipment for a class of a dozen children and now the FSA is offering grants to half the cost of these sets for primary schools! To apply for one of these grants, simply fill in this form and send it off by the 19th March 2010.

Since there is more to cooking than the practical element, Cookit sets also contain recipes, activities and food hygiene advice, designed to give children a well-rounded nutritional education. It is hoped that, by gaining these skills at a young age, children will be inspired to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle for the rest of their lives.

Anita Cormac, Executive Director for Focus on Food, said “The Cookit is a fantastic concept that has been really well received by all primary schools [...] We also understand how carefully schools need to manage their budgets. The Cookit has been carefully designed and trialled to ensure it effectively supports cooking in schools. The equipment is robust, made to high safety specification and represents good quality and value.”

This project to bring food hygiene and nutrition further into the education system, without putting undue extra stresses on budgets, is a fantastic step forwards in many respects.

Tuesday 9th March will see the Food Standards Agency put on a debate to investigate the public’s attitude toward food, food hygiene and nutrition, as well as the role of the government and food industries in creating decent attitudes towards food. Everbody is invited to the lecture (though obviously not everybody will fit into the British Library), which is called ‘Are We What We Eat?’ and will likely be a great insight into our changing attitudes towards nutrition.

Although the FSA is currently running multiple projects and food awareness campaigns, this particular event is being held as part of the ‘Myths and Realities’ series of debates at the British Library; events that challenge everyday myths in a wide range of subject areas, as a way of educating the population and finding solutions to common problems. Leading figures featuring in this debate will include University Professors, freelance medical writers and members of the FSA. Although most have impressive titles, I can’t help but be dubious about the University of Nottingham’s ‘Special Professor of Sociology’… A ‘Special Professor’ sounds bizarre enough, let alone one in the pseudo-field of Sociology – but that’s not the point of this post.

The point is that this is likely to be a fasincating insight into the reality behind the nonsense we read in the press every day.

On average, whole milk is 3.5% fat, semi-skimmed is about 1.7% and skimmed is just 1%. Despite this, millions of people continue to drink whole and semi-skimmed milk, instead of skimmed milk – which contains all “the important nutritional benefits of milk, including calcium, protein, minerals and vitamins, but with half the fat of semi”. Why? We’re not sure…

The Food Standards Agency’s saturated fat campaign has recently released research into this subject. The study revealed that, although 56% of people could taste a difference between semi-skimmed milk and skimmed milk, 75% of consumers liked the taste just as much and 94% found it an acceptable alternative to semi-skimmed across a range of uses. The study conclude that many people in the UK would be happy to change to drinking 1% fat milk instead of semi-skimmed, greatly improving our nation’s health, food safety and awareness.

FSA’s Head of Nutrition Dr. Clair Baynton, said ‘Our research shows that people are prepared to consider switching to 1% fat milk and those who regularly use semi-skimmed like the taste as much. We tend to use milk on a daily basis so this small step will make a big contribution to reducing our saturated fat”.

Today the Food Standards Agency will launch a phone application, designed to help people take a 21-day long challenge to cut thier saturated fat intake. The idea is to help people come to better understand the different levels of saturated fat in various food products, hence helping them make better choices about what they consume. All you need to use the application is a web-enabled phone, an iPhone or an iPod Touch; simply donwload the application from the Apple App Store or http://www.food.gov.uk/satfatapp to get started!

The 21-day challenge involves making a small daily change to your diet, to cut down on consumption of saturated fat. These changes can also be shared with friends via Twitter, should you desire to do so. You pick you own challenge for each of the 21-days, which can be something as simple as having skimmed milk on your breakfast on monday, instead of semi-skimmed. Once complete, you can Twitter your success to your friends.

To find out how people are getting on, check out http://www.food.gov.uk/satfatchallenge.