19th Dec 2008 - 00:00
Image
Abstract
Venners, the independent food safety expert, which is part of Christie + Co's parent company Christie Group, has urged operators to be both cautious and patient in response to the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) recent announcement that a six star Scores on the Doors scheme is to be introduced across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The company said that whilst the FSA had clearly not handled this process well and had alienated many business operators with its rather confused and unfocused approach, now was clearly not the time for industry commentators to be lambasting a scheme whilst the operating protocols were still in the development stage. Stuart Knill, Venners Head of Food Safety said that those already opposing the scheme could be guilty of promoting poor hygiene standards and practices in the industry, which would be in the best interests of nobody. Knill said: "What should be welcomed with this announcement is that at last we would get some consistency across the country and that is absolutely vital, as existing schemes are piecemeal and more confusing than helpful. "As with all schemes like this the 'devil will be in the detail' and once the proposals are in the public domain then we can assess how the industry can best respond and help in the process of educating both operators and the public."