Restaurants face 'dish the dirt' threat

RESTAURANTS which have failed food safety inspections will be forced to alert customers to lapses in hygiene by publishing potentially damaging inspection results under plans being considered by consumer watchdogs.

The Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) says it is unacceptable that customers can find out more via the internet about the cleanliness of a burger joint in the US than they can about restaurants in Scotland.

And in a report published yesterday, the SCC calls for a working group to be set up by the government’s Food Standards Agency to examine the best way of making the findings of public health inspections available to the public.

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Environmental health officers, who carry out the inspections in restaurants, bars, cafes and takeaways, back the plan, which could force offending outlets to display notices showing they have transgressed public safety regulations.

But food hygiene experts and restaurateurs warned that publishing critical inspection reports could lead to closures and job losses even for minor failures to comply with the law.

The chairman of the SCC, Graeme Millar, said: "The stark reality today is that consumers in Scotland can log on to the internet and find out about hygiene standards in restaurants in Richmond, Virginia, but they cannot do the same for eating places round the corner.

"Our research study shows that a significant number of professionals working in food law enforcement are unhappy about this and want the public to be given more information - both on emergency action and routine inspections."

Well-run food businesses would have nothing to fear from such a system, Millar said. "The public has much to gain from finding out about hygiene standards in their town or city. We will be calling on the Food Standard Agency to set up a working group, with consumer representation, to look into this issue."

The working group should also examine if all food premises should be licensed, Millar added. "These measures would improve food safety and help to restore public confidence in food-related businesses."

In some parts of the US, information on heath-related safety checks is readily available for public inspection on websites and displayed on notices in food premises.

However, in Scotland, no information is provided to the public unless, or until, an Emergency Prohibition Order is issued. This may be well after warnings have first been issued by enforcement officers.

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The SCC report suggests that one way forward would be to require food premises to display notices detailing the findings of any official inspection. This could help to raise standards as it would give a competitive advantage to those businesses that are found to have high hygiene standards, the report says.

Public confidence in food safety and standards has fallen in recent years following concern about issues such as BSE and E coli, and there is concern among hygiene professionals that in Scotland anyone can start a business and sell food to the public. The only requirement is for food premises to be registered 28 days before opening.

The SCC report says fears were expressed by environmental health officers that food premises are opening up or changing ownership all the time and many of them do not even meet basic requirements. There was support for a regulated licensing system for all food premises. At the moment only butcher shops and meat product factories have to be licensed.

On provision of information, the SCC says only a third of enforcement officers were happy with the present system of providing the public with information about formal infringement action against food businesses, with the rest indicating the public should be informed at an earlier stage than is currently the case.

Most thought information could be posted on websites run by the FSA but others favoured notices being displayed in food premises themselves. Concern was also expressed by the officials about a lack of resources and a low priority given to their work. Two-thirds complained of a lack of resources, with shortages of staff leading to difficulties in carrying out adequate inspections.

Food hygiene experts yesterday urged caution in adopting the SCC proposals. Professor Hugh Pennington, the scientist who led the investigation into the Lanarkshire E coli outbreak, which killed more than 20 people in 1996, said: "I am not against more information for the public but you have to make sure that it is in the public interest.

"An inspection may paint a restaurant or other food premises in a bad light but the criticisms may not be anything to do with something that could lead to an outbreak of food poisoning but simply a tweaking of procedures on an issue such as staff training.

"If environmental health inspectors do find something seriously wrong then they have the power to close premises down if necessary. But they would rather persuade a restaurant or shop owner to clean up their act first as long as they are satisfied that public safety is not at risk.

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"Publishing inspection reports, which tend to be quite technical, might have serious consequences for the owner in that the public might be deterred from going there and his livelihood badly affected when it is really only a simple matter that requires addressing. We must remember that the number of cases of food poisoning in this country is going down."

Arthur Bell, a former hotelier and restaurateur who now runs the Food for Scotland Trust charity, said publishing inspections reports would lead to a "set of new problems".

He explained: "When I was a hotelier we had an inspection and the results appeared in the local newspaper with the headline: ‘Food unfit for human consumption found in restaurant fridge.’ What had actually happened is that the inspector involved had found a jar of soured cream that we were using for sauces.

"Nevertheless this had a profoundly-damaging effect on our business. If we had had the resources then we would have taken out a case for defamation. Publishing inspection reports might seem a good idea but if the inspectors get it wrong or their findings are wrongly interpreted it can have a seriously detrimental effect on what is otherwise a good business."

The FSA said it was committed to developing initiatives to give more information to consumers about food enforcement activity and standards in food premises. But it added: "Publication of inspection reports would not be straightforward given the numbers of such reports, their technical nature, and associated legal and practical issues."