To wish Scottish restaurants/cafes etc had 'scores on the doors'?

[Ameliarosethistle]

I recently moved up to Scotland and I'm finding the lack of hygiene rating at restaurants difficult to deal with! I'm so used to checking the hygiene rating of a place before eating there and when living in England I tended to only eat at places with hygiene rating of 4 or above.

AIBU to wish that Scottish restaurants had scores on the doors and not simply a 'pass/fail' rating?

Surely if they're good enough, they pass. Scores on the doors are a tiny snapshot.

I've heard of repeated cases of food poisoning from some places that have a 'pass' though. Also some of the things like gelato places with packets of chocolate bars on top of the ice cream definitely wouldn't receive a 5 star hygiene rating in England.

Can't you just look them up online?

What are you on about with the gelato places?

As a scot I agree.

There have been enough cases of food poisoning in places in England with a 5 rating. TBH, the scores are pretty meaningless unless a place is totally minging. And I'm not entirely sure what you mean about gelato places. Do you mean where they perhaps have Oreos or similar on top of a tray of Oreo gelato? Can't see the problem.

How many times have you had food poisoning? Genuinely curious, I've never had it and DH had it once 35 years ago from a tub of coleslaw that a dodgy corner shop sold past its sell by date.
I therefore can't get worked up about it, especially as I'm not sure my kitchen would always get a high star rating (often the odd ancient jar at the back of the fridge not mice or anything!).

The local authority should publish the results of environmental health inspections, with a pass, requires improvement issued. If it's awful they close them.

Look it up online beforehand if you must. Have you some anxiety over this sort of stuff generally?

www.foodstandards.gov.scot/consumers/food-safety/buying-food-eating-out/food-hygiene-information-scheme

Oops sorry just read your post properly, if it was truly awful they would be closed until the issues are fixed.

No, they don't exist online for Scotland, you can only look up whether it's achieved a 'Pass' or a 'Fail'!

yabu. Don’t eat out if you’re that paranoid

You know some of those ratings are fake and can be bought off the Internet, surely you can look up reviews online ?

Repeated cases of food poisoning and chocolate on ife cream I don't know what you are talking about ?

I am Scottish and eat out a lot, including ice cream (gelato??). I've never had food poisoning. Do you have some level of food anxiety?

I don't think I've had scottish food poisoning well a dodgy kebab maybe but that was self inflicted.

Well in that case is a pass/fail worse than a certain number? Personally I’d rather know there is a hard line where it’s not good enough and fails or is good enough and passes. Is it any better to know oh this place is three stars and this is five? I mean what is allowed to slip that it passes but isn’t ‘good enough’ for more stars?

I’m Scottish, I love food, I eat out plenty. Not once have I had food poisoning. I actually can’t think of anyone I know who has had food poisoning. Certainly I’ve known many a hangover to be presented as food poisoning over the years though.

I mean you could get food poisoning from a 3 star place couldn't you ?

I didn't even know this was a thing!

Fwiw I know kitchens might be iffy with a food hygiene pass bur also the same stands for the English system the kitchen is only as clean as the inspection on the day .

I think pass/fail is a good statement.
What does anything less than 5 mean in England, anyway ?

Is there anything to actually suggest there is more food poisoning from hospitality in Scotland vs England?
Personally a number system is sort of pointless imo and pass or fail should be enough. It’s either clean, safe and hygienic or it’s not.

Im also lost about the gelato. Do you mean open bars of chocolate topping the gelato in the freezer for display purposes? Because I definitely see that in England too.

Interesting, so I am unreasonable I guess.

I just imagine that the bar for 'pass' cannot be as high as a 4/5 rating because as I said I know that for example certain pubs have had repeated cases of food poisoning and still haven't received a fail rating.

I realise the 'gelato' statement made no sense- basically the chocolate bar packets (which obviously have been handled by various people at shops and other places before arriving at the shop) are just stuck on top of the actual ice cream. You would need to either clean the outside of the packet OR just stick the opened chocolate bar on there for it to be hygienic. And before anyone comments- yes, I have diagnosed OCD so that will be impacting on how I feel about this.