Hygiene cases can be costly

13 April 2006
Hygiene cases can be costly

I write in response to recent reports that London restaurant Simpson's-in-the-Strand has been ordered to pay £10,352 in costs after losing a case against a hygiene improvement notice, based on allegations that the restaurant gave 31 customers salmonella.

A clean environment should exist in every food-serving chain, from the humble kebab van to the luxury restaurant.

The introduction of HACCP legislation in January means restaurants and hotels are now under more pressure than ever to have a comprehensive record to prove they're meeting hygiene requirements. Food poisoning can seriously affect a customer's health and bad publicity can wreck a restaurant's reputation. But the implications of poor hygiene run much deeper.

The Simpson's-in-the-Strand case demonstrates that compensation claims can be extremely costly. Even restaurants with the highest hygiene levels can be liable if their systems are not consistently enforced.

Managers must be able to prove hygiene practices are in order so they can counter claims. Restaurants and hotels will clearly benefit from introducing more robust management systems, which will help them to control the risk more effectively. Failure to do so could leave them exposed to larger and more frequent payouts.

Mark Harrington
Chief executive officer, Check Safety First

Have your say
Click here to e-mail your comments. The editor reserves the right to edit comments.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking