Confidence in cleanliness

When eating out, you want to know that you’re in good hands. To be more exact, you want to know you're in good clean hands, where hygiene is at the top of the list.

That’s why QAR specialises in cleaning supplies to the catering, cleaning and related industries to make the task that much easier. All purpose, heavy-duty, non-woven cloths come in different colours making them ideal for colour-coding; black, discreet and stylish for crumbing tables at the front of house, yellow for wiping down behind the scenes, blue for the loo, pink for the sink and green for chemicals.

When you are deciding on where to eat or where to shop for your food, there’s a scheme run by local authorities to assist you in knowing the hygiene standards of the restaurant, supermarket or any other food outlet.

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) which operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, does what it says; it rates food hygiene standards, giving you that all-important information and ultimately confidence in how the food has been prepared and presented.

A food safety officer from the local authority where the business is operating does an inspection and gives the business its rating. There are obvious aspects of food preparation and handling that are inspected, as well as the hygiene of the place of business.

The Food Standards Agency states that the officer looks at:

• how hygienically the food is handled – how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored
• the condition of the structure of the buildings – the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities
• how the business manages and records what it does to make sure food is safe

At the end of the inspection, the business is given one of the
six ratings from 0-5, where ‘5’ is the rating that all businesses should be achieving. Look for the green and black sticker and have confidence in those who are preparing the food. If they have a rating of ‘5’, then you can be sure they care about you and your eating-out experience.