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Hospitals and care homes fail food safety inspections

Food Standards Agency (FSA) data shows that care homes fail to meet food hygiene standards more than any other type of care provider, with more than 200 residential, nursing and care homes receiving low grades at their latest food safety inspections.

This was closely followed by nurseries, child care centres, playgroups and out-of-school care providers, more than 200 of which failed to meet hygiene standards, as well as a handful of hospices, homeless shelters, churches and youth centres.

The FSA ranks all food providers, giving them a score of zero to five. Zero means the establishment “urgently requires improvement”, one or two is considered a failing grade, and three to five is satisfactory.

An overwhelming majority (more than 98%) of hospitals and other care providers achieve a food hygiene rating of three or better. Despite this overall success, Michael Harding, a food hygiene rating scheme support officer at the FSA, said any instance of a care organisation receiving a low score was “a cause for concern”, due to the fact that vulnerable people, including children, older people and people who are ill, were more likely to use their services.

Zero ratings are given out for issues including mouldy and expired food found in fridges, evidence of cross-contamination between raw and cooked food, lack of hand-washing facilities, poor cooking equipment and no food safety management documentation.

Businesses awarded a zero rating are either immediately shut down or given 28 days to tackle urgent issues, with visits to check that work has been carried out. They can then either pay £160 to be rescored or wait until their next scheduled assessment, usually about six months later, to potentially be given a new score.

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