60 Welsh organisations found wanting in food hygiene training
Following a study by Consumer Focus Wales, more than 60 premises in the country have been awarded substandard food hygiene ratings.
The organisations under scrutiny, which included 30 care homes, 30 schools and colleges and 3 hospitals, have been ordered to improve food hygiene training and general food safety standards.
Consumer Focus Wales urged the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to allow councils to make food hygiene ratings publicly available online, particularly in relation to premises which are publicly funded and supply food to children, the elderly and vulnerable people.
Maria Battle, who is the senior director of the consumer watchdog, said:
“It is not acceptable that there are publicly-funded institutions, such as hospitals and schools, serving food to vulnerable people despite failing to meet statutory requirements for food hygiene.
“The greatest tool for improving food hygiene is openness to public scrutiny by making businesses display their food hygiene ratings on the premises.”
The study is the second progress report since the 2005 E.coli outbreak in South Wales, during which around 157 people became ill. Most of those affected were children and one little boy, five-year-old Mason Jones, died.