Balham's Food Hygiene Ratings

By aloquifique | Thursday, February 17, 2011, 14:05

Big shout out congratulations to The Nightingale Pub in Balham who tweeted this week that they've been awarded the full 5 stars by the London Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. This is the maximum number of stars that can be awarded and denotes an 'Excellent' rating in compliance with current hygiene legislation.

Nightingale Pub gains 5 stars for Food Hygiene Standards

Needless to say that 0 stars awarded denotes 'very poor', one star is 'poor' and two stars is 'broadly compliant'. So, we can see then, that with a further 3 notches above being compliant, the Nightingale basically, couldn't get any better!

So how's everyone else doing in Balham then? The Halal Meat Market was tested on 23 November 2010 and scored a big fat zero. Nul points. But then The Regent on Chestnut Grove, tested in May 2010 - only 2 months after it's opening - scored only one star. Same scoring for The Gazette, Paw Paw and The Fat Delicatessen. Both Harrisons and Lamberts score 3 stars a piece - denoting 'good'. Trinity Stores and Fujisan come in at 4 stars - 'very good'.

All this information comes from scoresonthedoors.co.uk who harvest their information from Wandsworth Environmental Health Officers - tasked under the Food Safety Act 1990, to inspect food businesses according to the Food Standards Agency Code of practice. And under the Freedom of Information Act, you too can seek for yourselves, whether that be a cafe, pub, restaurant, nursery or other food handling institution.

Just from a very personal perspective though. I had a delicious breakfast in The Fat Delicatessen this week. The place was bustling and the food was delicious. I was well aware of the one star rating but, for me, it made my experience all the more enjoyable. Less sanitised and more 'real'.

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Comments

Just had this response from Mary Dimbleby, Environmental Health Officer at Wandsworth:

Food premises are inspected on a risk based rolling programme in line with the frequencies outlined in the Food Standards Agency codes of practice. This risk rating is separate from the scores on the door star rating. Generally premises which have a low star rating will have a higher FSA risk rating and will be inspected either every six months or every year. When a premises is re-inspected there is an opportunity for the star rating to change.

The zero and one star premises fall within the non -compliant category and as such are subject to ongoing enforcement action in line with the council's enforcement policy.
These premises will have regular visits to assess progress and provide support to improve and maintain standards. The worst premises will be subject to legal action.
In all cases the aim of the council is to improve and maintain standards with any formal action taken in accordance with our enforcement policy.

After each inspection the business is sent a certificate and a sticker which indicates their star rating, however, at present there is no legal requirement for a business to display this information on the premises.

By aloquifique at 18:33 on 02/03/11
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