(or how to stay safe if you’re eating out, or buying in!)
Leaving aside, for now, the cooking of the Christmas meal, heating up leftovers, or providing buffet dishes for family parties – for regular readers these have been covered previously in my “Talking Turkey” feature as they justify an article all to themselves; let’s talk about festive meals out.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) released figures last year relating to a poll conducted on the hot topic of booking Christmas parties or work and family celebrations. I work in food safety & have spent seemingly a lifetime associated with the catering trade in many ways, shapes and forms, so I am up to date on the FSA & what they do, but it never ceases to amaze me that so few people appreciate that they are there to look after you too – the eating out public!
Technically eating out describes every time you eat something that you haven’t prepared yourself, which may be food as diverse as sandwich lunches, fish and chips, sushi, greasy spoon cafe or 5-star hotel but for the sake of the poll results we are focusing on restaurant / hotel eating out for a festive party.
So how can the FSA help you in your quest for a great Christmas party? How many of you are aware of the Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme? The green and black stickers found on the doors or windows of your favourite food outlet? Hopefully showing a number closer to 5 than 0 as that is the safest?
This rating will give you a pretty good idea about how much of your hard earned cash that particular restaurant is re-investing in keeping you safe and well, because actually, that is what it comes down to. How much of the money they charge you for your meal do they put into sourcing safe products, staff training, cleaning, upkeep of the premises, recruitment of quality staff and implementation of management systems designed to ensure the food is safe from any kind of harm.
So, if a restaurant is getting it right in the three main inspection criteria of premises & facilities, management systems and food handling practices, they will be proud to display a 4 or 5 rating, however if they are failing to comply with the required criteria, or achieving an unacceptably low standard that increases the risk to the customers they will get a 1 or 2, & worst case scenario could see a 0 awarded. Needless to say, as it is not yet compulsory to display these ratings on site, this may not be easy to identify.
OK so that’s the low down on the ratings scheme so let’s get back to the poll and the Christmas parties –
51% of the 2500 people questioned said that they would be responsible for booking a meal for family and friends over Christmas.
Despite the fact that 34% reported that they had a bad experience when eating out and suspecting they contracted food poisoning from in a restaurant or takeaway BUT only 3% view food safety as a priority when considering where to book a meal out – so from that we can only assume that the other 31% wouldn’t mind going through the same ordeal again, and putting their family and friends through it too!
83% of the people questioned stated that the venue would have to be rated at a 3 or above for them to consider it safe, and 57% said that if they discovered the rating was low they would change the venue or wouldn’t go BUT only 6.7% would always check before booking and 40% wouldn’t check at all… so how would they know?
Look before you book!!
If you go to a venue in person & cannot see their rating, these will always be displayed on the FSA website www.food.gov.uk/ratings or on the website of the local authority (council) responsible in the area where you are eating out, so this information is available – if you’re a food safety “geek” like me, you will have not 1 but 2 different apps on your phone that can find this information for you (they are free & easy to download)!!
No one chooses to get food poisoning, it is far from an enjoyable experience, at any time of year. So do yourselves, your friends and your family a favour, have a look online, check for the displayed sticker, ring the venue and ask, but somehow check that the food safety rating is acceptable and demonstrates that the people looking after you, are really looking after you and not putting your health at risk – if it is not acceptable, don’t go, spend your money somewhere where they deserve to earn it.
Look before you book!!
