Byron stops serving rare burgers after local authority intervention

Hamburger restaurant chain Byron has announced it is to stop serving its hamburgers rare, following the intervention of a local authority.

The group, which operates restaurants across London, said that owing to one local authority - which it declined to name - it would no longer offer its hamburgers cooked less than medium rare at any of its sites to ensure consistency.

Byron founder Tom Byng (pictured) told Caterer and Hotelkeeper he was not happy at all about the move. "We take health and safety extremely seriously, it's at the heart of what we do and we have very strict controls in place from the supply end right through to way our hamburgers are cooked," he said.

"We feel our hamburgers are perfectly safe to eat rare and in the four years that we have operated we have not had a single issue."

Byng added that although rare hamburgers only made up about 4% of its orders, customers should have the right to choose.

He said: "It seems like food safety guidelines are very much geared towards one element and that's how food is cooked. There should be a more holistic approach that takes into consideration best practice in terms of how food is sourced as well as how it is cooked."

Byron last week opened its most recent site at the Central St Giles development in London, with a further restaurant at Rathbone Place set to open at the beginning of next month.

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By Kerstin Kühn

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