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Local Establishment Achieves First Food Hygiene Award
Friday 26 January 2007
The dedicated catering department at a local hospital has helped it become the first establishment in the West Lothian to receive a prestigious food hygiene award.
The dedicated catering department at a local hospital has helped it become the first establishment in the West Lothian to receive a prestigious food hygiene award.
St John’s Hospital , at Howden, Livingston, was recently awarded the Eat Safe Award, in recognition of its excellence in food hygiene and food safety management.
The scheme was launched by the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) in Northern Ireland in 2003 and was rolled out across Scotland two years ago. Already there are more than 250 Eat Safe Award recipients across the country.
The scheme was introduced to act as an incentive to caterers to strive for high food hygiene and food safety management standards, and each Eat Safe recipient is awarded with a recognisable sign of excellence. Eat Safe also aims to improve public confidence, reassuring consumers that their food has been prepared with the utmost care.
The busy catering department at St. John’s supplies around 1,200 meals for patients and 1,500 meals for staff and visitors on a daily basis.
Mark Shipton, NHS catering manager, said he was delighted to be the first establishment in the area to receive an Eat Safe Award.
He said: “This award recognises the hard work and dedication of the fantastic catering team we have here at the hospital. It is great to see an establishment within the care sector receiving recognition for the quality of its food hygiene and food safety management and to be the first recipient in West Lothian makes the award even more special.”
Peter Midgley, Head of Food Law Enforcement Branch, Food Standards Agency Scotland, was delighted to announce the latest in a long list of landmark Eat Safe awards.
He added: “I am delighted this establishment has now received the first Eat Safe Award in the West Lothian Council area. It’s great to see so many businesses across Scotland taking such a serious interest in the scheme and we congratulate the latest recipient.”
31 of Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities have given their backing to the scheme, which was launched following discussions between the FSAS, the Society of Chief Officers of Environmental Health of Scotland, the Scottish Food Advisory Committee (SFAC), Scottish Local Authorities and the FSA in Northern Ireland.
Eligible establishments are assessed for the Eat Safe Award as part of scheduled food hygiene inspections carried out by Environmental Health Services. The issue and control of certificates is through local authorities and Awards are reviewed at every planned food hygiene inspection.
