Last-minute lovers looking for a romantic Valentine’s Day meal tonight may be advised to check a new Wigan Council website to ensure there are no unwanted after effects tomorrow morning.
Health chiefs in Wigan have launched a new rating scheme for food hygiene businesses in the borough, which will allow residents to easily view the hygiene score of a on a 0 to 5 rating, before choosing where to eat.
The council hope a greater consumer awareness will reduce illness by improving cleanliness and hygiene.
Alan Blundell, Assistant Director for regulation services at Wigan Council, said: “It is estimated that currently each year in the UK around a million people suffer a food borne illness, which leads to 20,000 receiving hospital treatment and 500 deaths.”
Food Safety Officers regularly inspect all food businesses for compliance with food law and rate businesses based on 3 factors: food hygiene and safety, structure and cleanliness, and confidence in management.
This is then used to give a score between zero and five, five meaning very good, down to zero meaning urgent improvement necessary.
A look at this newly published website shows that a surprising number of food outlets in Wigan are not legally compliant.
Several currently operating food outlets in Wigan including tapas bars, cafés, and fish and chip shops are shown to require improvement, and in some cases major improvement is required.
Mr Blundell added: “We are working with those businesses with low hygiene ratings to improve on their situations.”
The new website is to view the hygiene rating of all Wigan Food Outlets can be found out www.wigan.gov.uk/FoodHygieneRating
Picture couresy of Emeilliano di Laurentiis, with thanks.
