Tag Archives: rating

Hundreds fail food safety inspections across South Yorkshire, UK

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Almost 800 businesses across South Yorkshire have failed food safety inspections in the past two-and-a-half years.

zero.failFigures from the Food Standards Agency show 764 firms across the region are currently listed as failing to meet the minimum three out of five-star rating in inspections.

More than 270 businesses in Rotherham were not up to standard, along with 195 in Sheffield, 167 in Doncaster and 127 in Barnsley.

Food inspectors rated 27 companies as zero stars – requiring them to make ‘urgent improvements’ to their hygiene standards.

Four Sheffield businesses – Chikoo’s Takeaway on London Road, Koh-I-Noor on Handsworth Road, Wincobank Deli on Wincobank Avenue and Charley’s Pantry on Wostenholm Road – have received zero-star ratings ordering urgent improvements to be carried out.

Chikoo’s was found to have evidence of mice in its cellar. A spokesman for Chikoo’s said since the July inspection which resulted in a zero rating, improvements have been made and a subsequent inspection has taken place.

Michael Bluff, principal officer for Sheffield Council’s food safety team, said the business was re-inspected on December 17 and has made ‘significant improvements’, with a new rating to be issued in early January.

Rashid Mahmood, owner of Koh-I-Noor for around 18 years, said standards have improved since the inspection which resulted in the zero rating in September.

Inspectors had found food in a walk-in chiller did not have use-by dates attached, while food handlers were observed not washing their hands correctly.

Mr Mahmood said there had been subsequent visits by food inspectors and the restaurant was hopefully of having a higher rating reinstated in the near future. He said he had not been on site when the September inspection occurred and said he understands the restaurant will soon return to its normal high rating.

“We have never had any complaints from anywhere,” he said.

“Everything is spotless and it is all nice and tidy. I’m really strict with my staff and it will never happen again.”

Must be UK: 7 Cambridgeshire restaurants and takeaways score lowest ‘zero’ rating

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Seven establishments in Cambridgeshire have received a zero rating for their standards of food hygiene – the worst possible score.

8210819-largeThe Food Standards Agency zero rating indicates that urgent improvement is necessary and it is used to indicate how closely businesses comply with food hygiene law.

Inspectors of zero-rated Spring Restaurant, in Mill Road, Cambridge, found “there were no handwashing soap or towels near the wash basin” and that “a large number of mouse bait boxes under the work surface” indicated a previous mouse problem.

Are national restaurant inspection rating schemes working in UK? Early evaluation

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Scores on Doors and Name and Shame, still sound better that the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) and the Food Hygiene Information Scheme rest.inspection.disclosure.uk(FHIS).

But Brits can be stuffy.

The UK Food Standards Agency has published early findings from an ongoing analysis of implanting a national system and found that local authorities recognized the benefits of a single national scheme and any barriers to adopting the scheme were practical and/or financial in nature.

FHRS/FHIS were viewed by local authorities as a tool to enhance their enforcement role. This would be further strengthened if display of ratings by food businesses became mandatory.

Voluntary is silly. Just post it.

Just Post It Low Res

Airplane! If the food is safe, post an inspection grade and brag about it

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The greatest fictional food poisoning on an airplane first premiered in 1980 in the satirical movie, Airplane!.

“We had a choice (for dinner) of steak or fish.”
“Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.”

Everyone who had the fish becomes violently ill and a passenger is forced to land the plane.

But food poisoning can be nasty in real life, if you’re on a flight that still happens to serve something approximating food.

USA Today tomorrow has an editorial questioning the sanitary conditions at some of the catering facilities that provide 100 million meals yearly to U.S. and foreign airlines at U.S. airports.

Six months ago, U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors say they found live cockroaches and roach carcasses "too numerous to count" — as well as ants, flies and debris and workers handling food with bare hands — at the Denver facility of the world’s largest airline caterer, LSG Sky Chefs. Samples from a kitchen floor tested positive for Listeria, a bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections.

USA Today’s Gary Stoller, who obtained the inspections from the FDA, also found reports of violations at two other major airline caterers, Gate Gourmet and Flying Food Group.

The editorial says airlines can also do their part by demanding safe, sanitary food from caterers or refusing to do business with them.

In response, Jim Fowler, executive director of the International Flight Services Association, writes in a manner befitting a kindergarten teacher (no offense, mom) that “readers may be surprised to learn that the food served on airplanes is crafted in catering kitchens that operate with more stringent safety processes than those in many restaurants and fast-food establishments. The state-of-the-art standards followed voluntarily by airline caterers were first developed by NASA, whose guidelines are stringent and in some instances actually exceed other state or federal health requirements.”

Yes, it’s called HACCP, explain the lousy inspection reports.

“The incidents reported by USA Today were isolated.”

So the IFSA would be all for open and transparent grading of airline food safety, just as restaurants in most major cities are now embracing?