Published Date:
If you’re organising a gathering with family, friends or work colleagues at a local restaurant, pub or hotel you’ll probably be checking out the menus, so why not check out the food hygiene inspection result as well?
Argyll and Bute Council operates the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS), which means that good food hygiene is easy for consumers to spot. Restaurants, pubs, hotels, cafes and other places that sell you food are given an inspection result by one of our enforcement officers at each food hygiene inspection. A ‘Pass’ shows that the establishment met the legal requirements when it was inspected.
When you eat out or shop for food, you should see a ‘Pass’ sticker in the window or on the door, or a certificate on display. Businesses are encouraged to display the stickers and certificates at their premises in a place where you can easily see them when you visit.
All results are also published online. You can see which other local authorities are operating the scheme and search more than twenty-six thousand results for establishments in Scotland at food.gov/ratings.
Councillor Danny Kelly, Chair of the Planning, Protective Services and Licensing Committee said:
“When dining out, you’ll choose to go to an establishment where you like the food and you know you’ll have a good time. It makes sense to look before you book and check out the food hygiene result as well - it’s good to know and you shouldn’t have reservations about the standards of food hygiene in the kitchen.”
Charles Milne, Director, Food Standards Agency, added:
“The FHIS is all about giving consumers useful information on which to base their choice of where to eat. The FSA in Scotland has worked in partnership with Argyll and Bute Council and other localauthorities to introduce this scheme. It means that when you eat out - be it where you live or away from home - the same criteria have been used to inspect those food outlets.”
Recent research by the Food Standards Agency has shown that nearly 17 million people suffer from stomach upsets in the UK every year and many more instances go unreported. Nobody wants to have their Christmas festivities ruined – looking for the inspection result before you book could be a good move.