Food hygiene rating scheme

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South Derbyshire District Council will be adopting the new national scheme that will go live on 1 March 2011. This scheme will replace our current Scores on the Doors system. The new scheme is a partnership between the Food Standards Agency and local authorities, with the aim of providing consumers with helpful information about hygiene standards found in food businesses during inspections.  The aim is to help the public make informed choices about where they eat out or shop for food.  Having a single scheme in place will help ensure consistency for businesses both within and across local authority boundaries.

Some aspects of the national scheme will be different from Scores on the Doors. The new Food Hygiene Rating Scheme will consist of 6 tiers; a score of 5 will be the highest level indicating very good standards of food hygiene and a score of 0 will indicate that urgent improvement is necessary.  Private premises like child minders will not be rated. Also manufacturers, packers and very low risk shops, for example chemists, newsagents and places like garden centres that sell a small quantity of confectionary and biscuits etc. will not be rated.

Food businesses will be invited to place a sticker on the window or door that will look like one of the images here.  If you do not see one of these, we suggest that you ask the food business operator what their rating is or go to the National website.

Message for food business operators

In preparation for the change over, all food business operators will need to ensure the information we hold about your premises is accurate and up-to-date. This is important as some of the details may be published on the national website.

Every food business was written to last year, asking them to study the form attached to the letter and amend and return it.  If you have not returned the questionnaire or did not receive one, food businesses can still update their details by emailing us at commercialteam@south-derbys.gov.uk or by ringing 01283 595944, to ask which details are held on the database and to ask for amendments to be made.

How to find out more

If you would like to find out more about the National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, visit the Food Standards Agency website.

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