Decade of Guernsey food hygiene score has 'positive' impact

Olivia Fraser

BBC News, Guernsey

BBC A photo of a green sticker on a window. The sticker has five stars on it and is titled 'Guernsey Food Hygiene Information Scheme' BBC

All businesses that supply or prepare food are rated from zero to five

More than a decade of openly rating food outlets has helped improve food hygiene across Guernsey, according to the director of Environmental Health.

The “scores on the doors” food hygiene scheme was introduced in 2014. Prior to that, ratings were not visibly to the public.

Tobin Cook said it had been, “a really positive system”.

“The level of compliance we’re getting with businesses achieving really good, high-star ratings is really very impressive,” he added. “Currently we have around 800 food businesses registered with us and we only have seven which, at this point in time, are achieving less than three stars.”

A headshot of a man with short brown hair and black glasses. He is wearing a black and blue checked shirt.

Garin Dart, general manager of La Pommier Hotel, says the establishment uses a digital system and app to alert staff of checks to be made

Mr Cook said it was a way to, “reward” businesses achieving those ratings and “for those that aren’t achieving, it gives the public the right to make a choice, to have an informed decision on whether they’re comfortable with going in there”.

What are businesses graded on?

Officers inspect three main areas:

Hygienic food handling practicesCleanliness and the condition of the facilities and buildingManagement of food safety

Mr Cook said the practices looked at include “how the business is safely storing food, preparing food and serving food”.

They then look at “the fabric of the building itself and also the cleanliness”, and then look at the paperwork, which “is their hazard analysis, looking at where problems could arise and how they’re preventing that and the checks that they’re doing”, Mr Cook explained.

Garin Dart, general manager of La Pommier Hotel, said, “it’s a small island and people do really care, if you’re operating a food business you should be getting the best ratings possible”.

The hotel has a current five-star hygiene rating and Mr Dart explained “a lot more goes into it than people think”.

Mr Dart says he uses a system that helps staff keep track of all the tasks they need to complete to stay up to date.

“We also have it on everybody’s mobile phone as an app and it will alert them [of the tasks].”

“We digitalise it to make sure that, one, that it’s being done correctly, and two, that we can follow it up with any training if it’s not being done correctly,” he said.