Shetland is third worst for food hygiene in the UK

Nearly a quarter of food outlets in Shetland fail to meet expected food hygiene standards, according to information provided on the Food Standards Agency website.

Of the 366 establishments in Shetland which handle food 44 of those were given an “improvement required” rating by environmental health. This equates to around 12 per cent.

However, if you were to ignore the 169 establishments either awaiting inspection or deemed to be exempt from inspection that figure rises to 22.3 per cent.

This means that Shetland is the third worst performing local authority in the UK behind only Edinburgh and the Newham borough of London.

The figures relate to the quality of food hygiene across a range of establishments handling food. This includes restaurants, takeaways and cafes as well as hotels, schools, care homes and shops.

A total of 125 food outlets were found to have satisfactory hygiene procedures in place, although only seven of those were awarded an “Eat Safe” award.

This is awarded to establishments which go above and beyond the call of duty in the name of food hygiene.

The seven businesses found to have excellent food hygiene standards in place were The Moorfield Hotel, Scoop Wholefoods, Frankie’s Fish and Chips, The Braewick Cafe, Sandwick Baking Company, Shetland Kitchen Co and Hand-Made Fish Co.

The issue was brought to light following a national newspaper’s investigation published at the weekend.

• For more, and to see which outlets failed to meet the standard, see this Friday’s Shetland Times.