In the light of the recent Pork fraud issues, Ministers are now considering eclipsing the quasi-independent Food Standards Agency back under the control of a full government department – DEFRA.

Hang on a minute – Can’t anyone remember why the FSA was created in the first place? To separate it from MAFF to ensure independent consumer protection in the light of the 1990’s Mad Cow issues.

Plus ca change….

Link to the Farmers Weekly article here

Food Standards Agency research published today based on a survey of 400 Food Businesses and in-depth interviews with 60.The FBO’s surveyed were those who interact directly with FSA in the Dairy, Meat, Wine and Shell Fish sectors.

Full report here: https://www.food.gov.uk/research/fsa-and-official-controls-executive-summary

Consumers making legitimate bookings on Open Table are being scammed. Here’s how it works.

1. Scammer obtains an Open Table login. Quite easy really. They often phone up the restaurant, pretending to be OT, but could just as easily be an employee or ex-employee.
2. They look through forthcoming bookings, paying particular attention to special requests. Birthday, table position etc
3. Call up the unsuspecting customer; refer to some of the above details to build a sense of trust/authenticity; then ask for payment (or possibly even refund) of deposit.
4. Customer provides credit card details.
5. You know what happens next…..

Open Table are doing everything they can to stop restaurants compromising their login details and are very clear they will never call up and ask for these. Customers booking on the platform are also being warned.

Nevertheless, if you do book through OT or another of these services and get a call asking for your card details, hopefully you’ll now know what not to do.

Falling orders causes Deliveroo to cut staff by 9% with UK worst hit. Full story here: https://news.sky.com/story/deliveroo-to-cut-hundreds-of-jobs-globally-and-uk-to-be-worst-hit-12806890

Here is the link to the Sushi terrorism twitter video you may have heard about recently, showing this irresponsible practice. Incredibly it has now had over 40M views sending the food business’s share price tumbling https://tinyurl.com/4bhjuv8p

Since the begining of 2023, the results of the latest food inspections in Berlin have to be displayed at the entrance to restaurants, supermarkets, canteens and snack bars.

The Lebensmittelüberwachungstransparenzbarometer (go on then, you try saying it!) actually translates into Food Monitoring Transparency Barometer. The scale ranges from red on the right (poor) to green on the left (good).

Inspections are un-announced, although there is right to request a re-visit costing anything from €49 to €900. Fines for non-display can be up to €10,000

Details will also shortly be posted on the website.

Renewed calls have been made to expose “appalling” food businesses in Walsall by making it compulsory for them to display hygiene ratings publicly.
A cockroach infestation was discovered at a restaurant earlier this year.
Walsall Council will write to government ministers calling for ‘scores on the doors’ – which rate cleanliness of businesses out of five – to be made mandatory.
The authority’s cabinet approved the Food Law Enforcement Service Plan which highlighted work that has been carried out across the borough in the last 12 months.
Councillor Garry Perry, deputy leader for resilient communities, said the small team was dedicated to carrying out the work and had even issued notices on two premises which had cockroach and mice infestations this week.
He said, during 2022/23 two businesses had been closed for rat infestations, more than 100 bottles of counterfeit Yellow Tail wine seized and hundreds of out of date food removed from shop shelves.
The enforcement team also carried out 160 targeted inspections following concerns raised by members of the public, four health and safety prohibition notices served and 314 complaints about hygiene received.
Councillor Perry added the work was having a positive impact as the satisfaction rating for food hygiene standards had gone up from 75 per cent to 92 per cent while the number of businesses in the ‘very good’ category more than doubled from 328 in 2013 to 768 now.
From 75% to 92% of satisfaction rating for food hygiene standards, the number of businesses that are now in the very good category from 328 in 2013 to 768 now.
Councillor Perry said: “It’s absolutely appalling. Words do not describe the activities that our public protection team undertake in relation to food hygiene.
“It’s a serious piece of work for the organisation. This could have had life changing consequences. The pictures are sickening.
“I will not rest until I see ‘scores on the doors’ mandated. I know we’ve written to ministers before and had many promises.
“Yes there are economic negatives to having hygiene ratings displayed because you may not choose to use them if they are below a three.
“But what I would want for me is what we should all want for our residents.
“Unless we mandate scores on the doors, how will we know that premises is clean, conforms to the legislation and you’re not going to walk away with something rotten.”
Council leader Mike Bird added: “People’s lives out there are being protected by the officers who go out there investigating these infestations of cockroaches, rodents and everything else that goes with that.
“Not only that they are taking counterfeit stuff off the shelves. Only this week I saw a business in the town prosecuted for selling vaping material to a 15-year-old.
“These people need to know, they are not going to get away with it. We are there and the results are telling.”
A recommendation was made for officers to write to Government to reconsider making the display of food hygiene ratings to be made mandatory.

Walsall Express and Star 15/12/2022
By Gurdip Thandi

An updated version of the Industry Guide to Good Hygiene Practice has been launched by UK Hospitality.

The guide provides information on legal obligations for caterers and what they need to do in order to comply with food hygiene law, as well as other aspects such as good practice,
which are not legal requirements, but are likely to contribute to the overall achievement of food safety and customer satisfaction.

It can now be downloaded electronically for free here

Required reading for every food business

Comprehensive links to sites across the USA where you can find food hygiene scores, provided by Food Safety News: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/restaurant-inspections-in-your-area/

Mandatory display of stickers in England now paused, as FSA have been presented with a revised set of priorities by the Government, not least of which the massive task of revising all EU-based food legislation by the end of 2023.

Although it had previously announced that timescales to progress compulsory display of FHRS stickers in England would only be reviewed after mid 2023, work to prepare the consultation exercise and draft bill has also been put on pause, due to these priorities, with no firm dates currently set for them to resume.

If we look at some of the estimates in the reverse timetable below, you can get an idea of likely timescales once work resumes:

Expect physical Scores on the Doors to be some years away.