Hundreds of restaurants, bars, schools and canteens in Barnet have gone years without formal hygiene checks as cuts leave bosses with reduced resources.
National guidance says inspections should be carried out between every six months and every three years according to a venue’s risk level, but thirteen premises in our area have not been visited in over ten years.
They are Mill Hill Sports Club, Bodens, Pronto Coffee, Esso service station on Finchley Road, WJ Chitty, Holland & Barrett on Golders Green Road, St Peters Montessori, Iceland on Barnet High Street, Hampstead Gar.Sub. Pre-School, Short Notice Cake and Catering, Iced Gems, The Alexandra and St Mary’s Playgroup.
Of the 2,029 premises in Barnet given a grade, 1635 (80.6 per cent) have not been checked in the last six months, and 556 (27.4 per cent) not in the last three years.
Organi Kitchen, rated one star, is on the list of 556, as are Guardian Newsagents, Buy Rite and Southgate and District Reform Synagogue, all with two stars.
Other premises to not be visited by inspectors in the last three years include the Salvation Army on Albert Road, Golders Green Underground Station, Golders Green Synagogue, six Tescos and two Costas.
Overall, there are 166 premises in the borough needing some level of improvement: 16 have zero stars, 74 have one star, and 76 have two stars.
National guidance says councils were told to use a scoring system to assess a venue’s risk level, and to arrange visits ranging from every six months for the highest risk, to a programme of alternative enforcement strategies or interventions every three years for hygiene and every five years for standards, which relates to other issues such as whether businesses are serving what it claims to be.
Dr Lisa Ackerley, Food Safety Advisor at British Hospitality Association said: "It is shocking that businesses are having to wait for such a long time to be revisited.
"BHA members have also reported similar issues and we are currently in talks with the Food Standards Agency.
"As the Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme is becoming very popular with consumers to inform choice the BHA believe it must be fair.
“The scheme states that a business cannot request a revisit till three months has passed after the rating visit, and that the local authority will then revisit within a further three months.
"Waiting this long means that businesses who have improved may be shown to have an old rating, or they may have a rating that belongs to previous owners. Before mandatory display can be brought in, the BHA wants to see timely revisits, better consistency of rating and a fairer appeals process.”
Of the 2,029 Barnet premises with an available score, 1160 are rated five stars, 458 four stars, 245 three stars, 76 two stars, 74 one star and 16 zero stars.
Another one is awaiting inspection, and 62 are exempt from marking.
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