An acute shortage of environmental health officers (EHOs) is putting the public at risk from food poisoning in restaurants and other catering outlets.

The BBC's Real Story, shown on Monday, highlighted the fact that there are more than 700 vacancies for EHOs across the country and that nearly two-thirds of local authorities admit their environmental health departments are understaffed.

Paul Robinson, director of education and professional standards at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, said the sector had suffered a "double whammy" over the past three years, which had affected recruitment.

Robinson said that student numbers had dwindled because of misconceptions about the job, while many graduates, themselves trained by local authorities, were seduced by the better hours, pay and opportunities available in the private sector.

He added that staff shortages were forcing local authorities to scale back inspections at restaurants and catering outlets to deal with emergencies, and this could be putting the public at greater risk from food poisoning.

Coventry City Council, which has just 11 officers to police 3,000 food outlets, slashed its random food sampling programme from a planned 400 premises to just 40 last year.

Geoff Makin, EHO manager at Coventry, said: "We are continually reacting to the immediate and having to cut important preventative work."

Makin said new responsibilities to police liquor licensing and the smoking ban would put more pressure on resources. "If we have to keep doing more and more, we will become less effective at the things we are doing," he said.

By Angela Frewin