Inspections reveal star restaurants (From Swindon Advertiser)

Inspections reveal star restaurants

5:11pm Thursday 22nd February 2007

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TAKEAWAYS, restaurants and other eateries across Swindon are to be given score cards that can be posted in their front doors for all to see.

Swindon Council is joining other local authorities across Wiltshire in issuing the "scores on the door" certificates aimed at helping customers decide whether a kitchen has been rated clean enough for them to trust.

Council food safety team manager Janice Bardwell said the borough would be handing out the scores from April 1, in line with other Wiltshire councils.

Inspection reports from that date onwards will produce a score to be posted on the council's website, along with a certificate businesses can display.

The council said it would not be putting up earlier inspection reports, despite those being available to anyone under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Advertiser has already used the act to show conditions in one restaurant before it was closed temporarily by food inspectors.

Ms Bardwell said the council did not have the power to make food operators exhibit their certificates, but hoped public pressure might do so.

She said the food hygiene team were keen to work with businesses, and had recently invited more than 300 to free seminars and one-on-one management tutoring.

There will be a meeting on Wednesday, asking businesses for their views on the scheme and how it can be improved.

Ms Bardwell said the meeting would also discuss how good operators, who won't be inspected for 18 months at a time, can get their stars earlier.

A pilot in West Wiltshire showed residents went looking for the stars when deciding whether to eat in an establishment.

"The ones who have got good stars have all displayed theirs," Ms Bardwell said.

"If there isn't one displayed, people ask where is it?' "Hopefully, public pressure will force them to put it up."

By October, all the highest-risk premises in the town will have been inspected and issued with scores.

The score certificate will include an expiry date, hologram to make it difficult to copy and the number of stars shown in both words and icons.

Under the council system, three areas inspected by the council's food team - hygiene and safety, the condition of the shop or restaurant and confidence in the management - will be combined in to a "star score" available on the council's website and on a certificate the eateries can display.

A maximum of five stars will be recorded "Five stars mean that there are excellent standards of hygiene and no stars mean poor hygiene conditions were found and follow up action is needed," a flyer going to food businesses says.

The council says the scores will be a good advertisement for businesses, increasing trade and rewarding the effort they have put in, as well as driving up food hygiene standards in the borough.

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