Scores on the Doors

Ever wanted to know what it's like behind the kitchen door?

Herefordshire Council is taking part in Scores on the Doors, a scheme that makes the results of food hygiene inspections available to the public.

This scheme provides a way for high achieving businesses to receive the recognition they deserve while giving under-achieving businesses an incentive to improve.

Scores on the Doors has been adopted by over 100 local authorities across the UK and is being evaluated by the Food Standards Agency. The Scheme consists of rating business on 3 elements of their food hygiene score to give a rating from 5 stars, for excellent businesses, down to no stars for businesses needing significant improvement.

The ratings for Herefordshire are available from the Scores on the Doors website from 28 January 2008. Businesses are being asked to display their certificates on their premises, although this is not a requirement. Look out for the certificates showing the ratings at food businesses across Herefordshire.

How are food premises rated?

The Council's Environmental Health Commercial Team routinely, as part of its annual inspection programme, inspects and scores all food businesses in the county using a national risk-rating scheme. The elements of that score relating to food hygiene, structure and confidence in management will be published as a single star rating to make the score easy to understand.

• 5 Stars - Excellent: Very high standards of food safety management. Fully compliant with food safety legislation
• 4 Stars - Very Good: Good food safety management. High standard of compliance with food safety legislation.
• 3 Stars - Good: Good level of legal compliance. Some more effort might be required.
• 2 Stars - Broadly Compliant: Broadly compliant with food safety legislation. More effort required to meet all legal requirements.
• 1 Star - Poor: Poor level of compliance with food safety legislation - much more effort required.
• No Stars - Needs Improvement: A general failure to comply with legal requirements. Little or no appreciation of food safety. Major effort required.

All catering and food retailers inspected for food hygiene since 1st January 2007 have their results published*. You should remember that the score shows what the business was like at a particular point in time. It may not reflect the current condition of the business. There is a facility on the webpage for business to add comments.

For details of the Scheme's Policy, please visit the resource document box on the right hand side of this page.

If you require any further information about the scheme, either as a business or a consumer, please contact the Commercial Team on 01432 261761, asking for a Scores on the Doors officer.

* Certain categories of business will not be included in the scheme.