Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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'Satisfactory' takeaway fined for false food hygiene rating display
The Food Standards Agency 'scores on the doors' scheme, whereby food businesses display their hygiene ratings on their doors, is only as good as those taking part - in as much as whatever is displayed needs to be accurate and up-to-date - but this is not always the case...
A takeaway business in Chester, has been fined a total of £3,100 for falsely displaying a food hygiene rating of five, when its rating was only three.
Fatih Goztepe, 31, pleaded guilty to five offences concerning the Royal Kebab Pizza House in Wharton Road when he appeared at Chester Magistrates Court last Thursday, reports the Chester Chronicle.
The Court heard that The Royal Kebab Pizza House was awarded a Food Hygiene rating of '3 - generally satisfactory' in November 2013, but that during a visit to the Winsford premises in May 2015, hygiene officers noticed the business displaying a five-star food hygiene rating on printed takeaway menus and on its website. There was also an old door sticker and certificate showing a food hygiene rating of four in the customer area of the premises.
The premises were inspected again in August 2015 and the business was then awarded a food hygiene rating of four.
However, the business was still displaying a five star hygiene rating on its website around five months later in January 2016. Further, it had not removed the menu page displaying the higher hygiene rating from its website despite Trading Standards advising Mr Goztepe to do so.
As a result of the offences committed; the defendant was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £2,000 along with a victim surcharge of £100.
Councillor Karen Shore, cabinet member for environment, said: "This deliberate false advertisement of a five start food hygiene rating misled not only consumers, who rely on the Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme when making an informed choice of where to eat, but also local businesses nearby that may have been commercially disadvantaged by the false ratings displayed by their competitor.
"While the display of the food hygiene rating sticker and certificate is not yet mandatory in England, the voluntary display of the symbol must accurately reflect the most recent hygiene assessment of the businesses environment and practices."
23rd June 2016