Question reference: S5W-03290
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 29 September 2016
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Current status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 28 October 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of food outlets in Wales and Northern Ireland being required to display food hygiene certificates, what plans it has to introduce such a measure.
Answer
In Scotland, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) operate the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) in partnership with local authorities. The scheme is intended to help consumers choose where to eat out or shop for food by providing at-a-glance information about food hygiene compliance. The scheme is assessed by local authorities during their food law inspections at catering and retail outlets. FHIS applies to all food outlets that supply food to consumers, including restaurants, takeaways and food shops, and is based on a simple, two-tier ‘Pass’ or ‘Improvement Required’ format.
While FSS strongly encourages food businesses to display their FHIS certificate and/or sticker publicly in their premises it is not currently mandatory to do so. All results are published and can be found on the Food Standards Scotland website at http://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/fhis/search.
FSS is currently conducting a full review of the scheme in Scotland and the potential for a mandatory scheme is being considered as part of this process. Any formal consultation on proposals for a revised scheme would be carried out by FSS during 2017.