Have you ever wondered what the kitchen is like at your local take-away?  Or wondered which restaurant to choose when you want to celebrate a special occasion without giving friends and family food poisoning?  Well now’s your chance to find out through a new service the Council is providing through a website called Scores on the Doors.  

Food businesses across the UK are inspected by officers from the local Council.  Following the inspection, each business is scored according to the standards found such as cleanliness.  Many Councils are now publishing the results of their inspections so that consumers can make informed choices about where they choose to eat.  In the long term, this is expected to drive up food hygiene standards in food businesses across the country. 

From 9 June, to coincide with Food Safety Week, Maldon District Council will be publishing the results of its catering inspections through a website called Scores on the Doors: http://www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk .  Food businesses will have a star rating between 0 and 5 stars, 5 stars being excellent and no stars being very poor.  Other Essex Councils, including Basildon, Braintree, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock are also publishing their business scores.

Councillor David Williams, Vice Chairman of the Community Services Committee, says ‘This is a great scheme which not only provides useful information to the public, but will encourage food businesses across the District to improve their food hygiene standards – this in turn will reduce the incidence of food poisoning and protect consumer health’. 

The Scores on the Doors website gives details of how businesses both locally and nationally have scored following their food hygiene inspection.  So if you want to check out your local take-away of restaurant, just click onto the website and see.

For more information contact:

Environment Services at Maldon District Council on 01621-854477 or environment.servicesrequest@maldon.gov.uk or check out the website at www.maldon.gov.uk