'Good food hygiene is getting easier to spot' says the Food Standards Agency
Monday 28 February 2011
Good food hygiene is getting easier to spot in Wales with the launch today (28 February) of a bilingual advertising campaign from the Food Standards Agency. Designed to promote awareness of the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, the consumer advertising campaign runs in Wales for a four-week period.
The advertising shows the scheme's rating sticker, and the web address food.gov.uk/ratings where the ratings can be found.
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme helps make it easier for consumers to choose places with good hygiene when eating out or shopping for food. The rating tells them about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other places they eat out, as well as in supermarkets and other food shops.
In Wales, all 22 local authorities are implementing the scheme and as each food business is inspected it is given a rating. The rating of ‘5’ means that the business was found to have ‘very good’ hygiene standards, and a ‘0’ means urgent improvement is necessary.
Steve Wearne, Director of the FSA in Wales, said, 'Local authorities in Wales, have been busy implementing the scheme since the beginning of October 2010. It is now important that the consumer is made aware of the scheme and what it means for them. The campaign will create this awareness. With this scheme, a simple rating on a sticker gives consumers the information they need to choose the places with the best hygiene standards when they eat out or buy food.'
Notes to Editors:
- The bilingual advertisements will appear throughout March 2011 on phone kiosks and in national and local print media across Wales. In total, 650 phone kiosks and 31 newspaper titles will carry advertisements over the four-week period.
- The campaign will be complemented by advertisements on digital media such as Google and Facebook.
- The Food Hygiene Rating scheme is run by local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in partnership with the Food Standards Agency.
- Each food business is given a hygiene rating when it is inspected by a food safety officer from the business’s local authority. The hygiene rating shows how closely the business is meeting the requirements of food hygiene law.
- The food business will then be given a window sticker and certificate to display.
- The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is new. This means not all food businesses will been inspected yet and have a hygiene rating.
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Email: caroline.kitson@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk