Ireland moving towards Scores on the Doors. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland launches a public consultation on a national scheme to publish food hygiene scores. Not a foregone conclusion yet, but some interesting questions are being asked:
If Ireland had a food hygiene rating scheme, should it be a voluntary or mandatory scheme?
Preference for 5 star, smiley face or letter scheme
You can respond to the consultation here
FHRS in the ICO top 40 of the last 40 years
The Information Commissioner’s Office is celebrating the top 40 achievements since it was setup 40 years ago. Very proud to announce that included in that prestigious list is the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.
Display of Care Inspectorate Scores on the Doors now compulsory for care homes in Wales. From 31 March 2025 all care homes in Wales are required to display their Care Inspectorate scores both on the premises and on their website. More details here
5 star compliance now up to 76.6%. The latest performance report from FSA shows that a record 76.6% of food businesses now achieve 5 stars.
Announcing the launch of our sister site – Paws on the Doors!
We’re looking to do for Animal Welfare Licensing what Scores on the Doors did for Food Hygiene over the last 20 years. [Today 76% of all food businesses achieve the top 5 star rating, up 60%. Unregistered businesses have been halved.]
Colchester City Council and Gravesham Borough Council are publishing their data from 10 March. In addition, Horsham District Council will be launching on 14 March; Maldon District Council the following week; with more to follow.
By publishing the details of animal operators on a single site www.animal-licensing.uk members of the public are now able to find out about businesses providing Dog Boarding, Breeding, Daycare and Home boarding as well as Catteries, Horse hire and Pet shops.
Cross-boundary searching will start to take effect as more and more authorities’ data is published over the next few weeks and months.
For each operator we provide all (authorised, disclosed) contact details as well as information such as the valid licence number and expiry date, star rating and capacity.
Waltham Forest finds four more fraudulent FHRS stickers on display.
Clip from BBC London 4/3/2025 here
Fewer Inspectors, more outlets.
FSA analysis found resources are considerably lower than a decade ago, with 9.1 percent fewer food hygiene staff and 32.5 percent fewer food standards officers in post by October 2023 compared to 2012/13 – despite a 5.7 percent rise in the number of businesses in the past decade.
Fuller coverage of the analysis can be found here
Link to last night’s Rip Off Britain article which features display of fraudulent Food Hygiene stickers. Article starts 43m30s in.
Interesting to note that a recent Which? survey found 12% were being incorrectly displayed.
New Food Crime Factsheet. A handy 4 page summary just released by IFST helps you avoid becoming a victim of Food Fraud.
Scores on the Doors coming to Ireland?
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has released its strategy for the next 5 years, which includes the following as an objective:
“An evaluation of the evidence relating to hygiene rating schemes for food businesses and a recommendation made on their future place in Ireland’s official control system.”
Watch this space…