Do you care about hygiene rating?

[beckietheconqueror]

Hi everyone!

Just wondering. Do you care about hygiene rating?

My husband likes to eat in random local fried chicken/burger shops, even when their hygiene rating is 1 or 2 stars.

There's one around the corner that looks dodgy, is always empty, and has a 1 star hygiene rating. He orders from them and a couple more regularly and calls me a snob from not wanting to.

AIBU to be cautious about it?

I've worked in health related field, including risk management, and they talk about the 'Swiss cheese model'. Each risk in a situation ('slice') is like a hole. Think of a number of slices next to each other. Mostly the holes don't line up, but if they do... That's when 100 guests at a wedding reception get food poisoning from the mayo and 3 die. So what most people at a low rated place don't get ill? That's not the point.

If I knew the place had a less than 3 rating wouldn't order from there!

Never considered a hygiene rating of anywhere I've eaten. Occasionally notice them if displayed very prominently. Otherwise doesn't cross my mind.

I’m fairly lax about hygiene as MN goes but 3 is pushing it for me and below a 3 is an absolutely not. There is a sushi place near me with a 1 🤢

I won't go less than 4 and if I'm looking at takeaways and trying to decide what I want, the 5 rating will swing it for me. I am quite lax about best before dates, food being on the side rather than straight in the fridge etc. But that is in my own house. I have had gastroenteritis once and never, ever want to have it again so am very cautious eating out.

I used to work for a restaurant group. You have to be going some to get a 0-2 rating. I’m not particularly fussing and my own kitchen is a tip but some of our kitchens were truly fetid

I have worked in restaurant and bar management most of my life. It really isn’t hard to get a 5 star rating, I wouldn’t eat anywhere with less than a 4 and even then I don’t feel comfortable about a 4 really.

A relative loves a certain Chinese that we have always been very meh about. It got a zero this year so I thought oh shit best let her know. She responded that she didn’t care as it was yummy. So never Chinese at their houses again as that side all order from there.

The mind boggles at just how bad it has to be to get a zero. The jokes on the local paper where interesting as people tried to work out what the hell they where doing for it to be so low.

A four is my lowest knowingly.

Ex EHO food safety officer here - a 1 rating is serious concern and should be part of an improvement programme over 6-12 months with the LA.
It's far more serious than a 'dirty floor'.
The hygiene rating system is risk based and based on previous inspections and compliance with food safety regs.
Documentation of temperature monitoring, cleaning schedules, staff training pest control checks, supplier details, hazard analysis, stock rotation, date coding etc. are looked at.
Structural issues are also inspected.

"She didn't care as it was yummy". That is one of the silliest things I've seen on MN.

The text genuinely said yummy. I did laugh I’ll be honest.

I sent the screenshot and said you might want to avoid and got back “Don’t care it’s yummy” then “in fact we had it two days ago didn’t get the shits so 🤷🏻‍♀️”

I gave up.

Like this @AuntieJune ?

https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/13/raymond-blanc-lambs-liver-food-poisoning

What do you all do when you go on holiday?

I holiday in the U.K.

I won't eat anywhere that doesn't have a 4 or 5. And 4 I am a bit iffy about. Even the local burger van in a car park got a 5 so if a full on restaurant can't get a 4 or 5 something is seriously wrong.

Wow. Isn't 'didn't get the shits' setting the bar a bit low? Like 'my new boyfriend hasn't murdered me yet'?

You’d think wouldn’t you.

Heh. I have travelled a lot in Asia and I always find piping hot food from street vendors never makes me ill, but food from a posh five star often does.

That said, OP, if you don't want to order from that dodgy place, you don't have to, and you are not a snob. That kind of food doesn't seem very attractive to me.

I’m really pleased to see people here say how easy it is to get a 5 because we moved to our town a little while ago and were shocked that nearly everywhere got a 5*. We are from London and had seen all sorts of ratings and were used it to, so it seemed very strange to us that everywhere was 5… seemed suss and we were adamant the council were lenient.

But maybe our old town was just exceptionally lax (worrying) haha!

Tell your husband to consider this- if a business has a 1/2 rating and is still open and posing as a business with no customers it’s likely to be a money laundering establishment so the care and attention for his food is going to be minimal at best.

I never go below a 5, because at least you know they made the effort, anything less and it’s doubtful they take their craft seriously.

You've got to be really pretty bad indeed to score that low, even if you include legacy building difficulties.
That's the score you get when EH dept basically would prefer to shut you down but have to give you chances to improve etc as they can't just instantly put people out of business.
I say that as someone who has been involved in the inspections.

This. My eyes just opened. This makes absolute sense as to why our old town had such low scores. We had terrible gang problems. Makes total sense to me now.

I have just checked all my favourite neighbourhood dives- one with literally 2 tables and a man with a large pan of oil in the middle- and they all have 4 star ratings, so they must be cleaner than I thought.

I wouldn't eat below 4 and even 4 I'm a bit wary of.

In developing countries, I go by the mantra of "cook it, boil it, peel it or forget it"

In other words, food cooked to order and served hot.
Boiled and cooled water, or sealed bottled water (optional - add your own water purification tablets), or sealed soft drinks like coke.
Peel it - as with some fresh fruit

Things to avoid include salad (don't know what water it was washed in), milk (too easy to spoil, usually unpasteurised in such countries, and a vector for things like brucellosis) and anything served cold.

I also tend to look for busy establishments with local patrons - if they're just they'll have decent turnover of food going through the kitchens, and the locals will know where has a reputation for giving people food poisoning.