All restaurants, cafes, takeaways and other food outlets in St Albans City and District will be given a rating for food hygiene by April 2014.

St Albans City and District Council is more than half way through implementing the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme in the District.

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme was developed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities. It rates eateries and other places that sell food on their hygiene standards, based on inspections carried out by council Food Safety Officers.

At a meeting on 7 November, the Local Services Scrutiny Committee heard that a rolling programme of food hygiene inspections of food outlets is being carried out. Information from the inspections is then being used to rate the food outlets in an effort to encourage food outlets to improve food hygiene standards.

Food outlets are rated on a scale ranging from zero at the bottom (which means ‘urgent improvement necessary’ to a top rating of five (‘very good’).

Details of ratings that have so far been awarded are available online at www.food.gov.uk/ratings or via a free phone app. Businesses that have been inspected have also been given a distinctive green and black ratings sticker to display on their premises.

Councillor Chris White Chair of Local Services Scrutiny Committee for St Albans City and District Council, said: “The scheme is designed to encourage food outlets to drive up hygiene standards as the public can use the ratings to help them choose where to eat.”

More information about the Council’s food safety control programme is available in the papers for the meeting on Thursday 7 November at: http://stalbans.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=389&MId=7174&Ver=4