Food safety to protect public health and support local economy

It’s national food safety week and people are being encouraged to check the scores on the doors when booking or going out for a meal.

West Suffolk Council carries out over 700 food hygiene inspections a year.

This work is designed to ensure good food hygiene practices among businesses so customers can enjoy a meal out without the risk of food poisoning, supporting customer choice, consumer confidence and the local economy.

Those inspections then see businesses awarded a food hygiene rating of 0-5.

A rating of 0-2 means the business is below satisfactory food hygiene levels and needs to make improvements to address the issues identified.

Those issues can include potential cross contamination between raw and ready to eat foods, poor standards of cleanliness, lack of documented food safety controls, out of date foods, and lack of staff training.

Where a business falls shorts, the council aims to support them through advice so they can make the necessary improvements to their hygiene.

In the last financial year West Suffolk Council helped 100 per cent of businesses who scored 2 or below on their hygiene inspection, reach at least the satisfactory grade of level 3 within the space of just three months, helping protect the public, support good business practice and provide consumer confidence to residents and visitors to West Suffolk.

Mike Pursehouse, the director for Housing Communities and Regulatory at West Suffolk Council, said: “Food hygiene inspections are just one of the ways that we support and advise this important sector of our economy.

“The ratings system serves to protect the safety of customers so they can enjoy a meal out without the risks of food poisoning and to support businesses in good practice.

“We carried out almost 750 food inspections last year and will advise businesses – even those who have strong established food hygiene practices in place – on any improvements that we identify they can make.

“Where a business falls short, our aim is to support them through advice so they can make the necessary improvements to their hygiene.

“Our aim is not to penalise the business but to protect consumers including residents and visitors to West Suffolk and this in turn contributes to our wider work in supporting the growth of our local economy.”

Food Hygiene Ratings can normally be found on restaurant doors or windows or their websites.

They are also published online on the Food Standards Agency website at https://ratings.food.gov.uk

For more on the work of the council supporting the food safety of businesses visit www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/business/licensing-and-regulation/food-safety