Council puts 'scores on the doors' for Wokingham's eateries

Published by Jon Land for Wokingham District Council in Communities and also in Health, Local Government

Food businesses from kebab vans to Michelin star restaurants in the Wokingham Borough have been served up a star rating to reflect their hygiene and management – which the public can view from today.

Businesses that prepare and serve food, including restaurants, grocers, cafés and take-aways have been rated from a half-baked zero stars to a tasty five stars under the Scores on the Doors scheme, based on their most recent inspection by Wokingham Borough Council’s environmental health team. 

From today anyone wanting to dine in the Wokingham Borough can log on to www.wokingham.gov.uk/scores to make an informed choice about where they eat based on the businesses last food hygiene and management inspection results.

All food businesses that need to be regularly inspected by environmental health, apart from newly opened ones that have yet to be inspected, have been given a star from zero to five. The ratings are based on scores for food hygiene and safety, structure and cleaning, and management and control.

There are more than 100 food businesses in the Wokingham Borough that are so well managed or considered such a “low-risk” that they do not need to be regularly inspected, unless their standards are questioned by the public or the environmental health team believe their standards have dropped.

These businesses will automatically be given a special status as they surpass even the “excellent” benchmark.    

As well as giving consumers more information about where they eat, Scores on the Doors will also aim to encourage food businesses with poorer hygiene and management practices to improve. Those businesses with zero, one and two stars will be re-inspected more frequently and given more help to improve from the council, so that they have every opportunity to gain more stars.

In the Wokingham Borough the majority of food businesses have three, four and five stars – with only five per cent of businesses having zero stars and seven per cent having one star.

The star ratings will change according to the results of the next inspection by the environmental health team so businesses can gain stars, lose stars or retain the same number of stars.

To mark the start of Scores on the Doors in the Wokingham Borough a launch celebration was held earlier today, attended by representatives of five-star businesses, the environmental health team and special guest, Cllr Barrie Patman, deputy mayor of the Wokingham Borough.

Cllr Barrie Patman, deputy mayor of the Wokingham Borough, said: “Scores on the Doors is a way of giving everyone who dines in the Wokingham Borough the chance to find out how well restaurants and cafés are managed and how hygienic they are, so they can take that into account when choosing somewhere to eat.

“It will also encourage those businesses not performing well in the hygiene and management stakes to clean-up their act.”

Peter Haikin, environmental health manager, added: “In the Wokingham Borough the majority of food businesses have five, four or three stars, with only a handful at zero and one star, which is great news.

"We want all those at the bottom end of the scale to become at least three star businesses and so we are re-inspecting those poorer performers as regularly as every six months, so that when they do take on board our advice they are rewarded with extra stars.   

“Sometimes it’s simple things that can be changed to improve star ratings, like having a written food safety management system and regular cleaning.

"I want to reassure the public that any business inspected, which the environmental health team believes is causing an imminent risk to the public’s health, is temporarily closed down immediately after inspection, until it proves it is no longer a risk.” 

Businesses have been offered star-rating stickers to display in their premises, although they are not compulsory.

The public can log on to www.wokingham.gov.uk/scores to find out a star rating or text SOTD followed by the business name (the first few letters should be enough) and town to 60060 (there is a 50p charge for this service plus the cost of a standard network text).