RE: Stotts Craft Bakery – A Tasteem Review
I wouldn't be too impressed with a good food hygiene rating. I'm sure their hygiene is great, but having run my own cafe for five years, I started to get the impression it was more about being obedient to the whims of the food hygiene officers than actual cleanliness. I was so enthusiastic at the start that I actually contacted the Food Hygiene dept and told them I was setting up a cafe and that I wanted guidelines on good practice. I had no response, but shortly after opening I got a very stern and fear-mongering letter, warning me that I was breaking the rules and had not done a Food Hygiene course - in fact, not only had I done the course, and had the certificate - I had also paid for my one staff member to do it too.
I got no apology, but a food hygiene officer soon paid a visit, and said I would need to install a fourth sink with taps and separate plumbing in the tiny weeny shop I was renting. There was already a sink in the front of the shop and one at the back, as well as one in the toilet, but we were told we needed a dedicated hand-washing sink. This had to be installed at a cost of £250. After it was installed, we got our "Pass" certificate.
However the certificate was revoked a couple of years later - not because cockroaches were found or mould in a sandwich - we had no such complaints - but because Environmental Health started to demand another costly renovation which we simply couldn't afford to do.
After my experience running a cafe I started to get the impression that much of this red tape comes about from lobbying by much bigger businesses who can afford to make costly internal changes on a whim, to make things difficult for smaller competitors. How many small cafes do you know that survive more than five years? This wasn't the only reason I closed my cafe, but it was a contributary factor.
What you are saying doesn't surprise me so much but is interesting to hear from someone with experience of it.
I have seen many 5 ratings, some 4's and even a 3 once. Do they give out 1's and 2's? and do you have to show them?
I think it depends on the local authority. Not all of them demand three separate sinks, for example. I don't think they had different ratings when I ran my business (I closed it in 2015) - it was just a question of whether you could display the certificate or not. A fail didn't mean you had to be shut down. When the inspector visited it was always unannounced, and there was a kind of hushed atmosphere while she put on her white coat and started checking in the corners and inspecting the fridges. The visits always seemed to be on hot summer days. But she never found flies or cockroaches or out-of-date stock - it was always about bureaucracy and ticking boxes.