Leith's hygiene police force is no solution

Prue Leith's attack last week on food hygiene legislation in general and on Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) in particular was a strange mixture of good common sense and bizarre conclusions.

She rightly condemned EHOs who made life a misery for caterers by insisting on illogical improvements to premises and working practices.

Examples of these "little Hitlers" at work have been featured at regular intervals in the pages of Caterer & Hotelkeeper over the past few years.

But then to suggest that EHOs be replaced with hygiene police who would use criminal law to prosecute in food poisoning cases is madness.

Such a solution would put terrible pressure on caterers who would live in fear of "police" action turning them into criminals.

Miss Leith also suggests that in this process the advice currently carried out by EHOs be put out to the private sector. This ignores the fact that many caterers already use private consultants.

But they also, in most cases, find the helpful advice of a friendly EHO officer invaluable. How often would the advice simply not be sought if it had to be paid for privately?

Miss Leith's other outburst against the process of due diligence, which she describes as an "amazing racket", is also wide of the mark. The due diligence legislation has not been introduced, as she seems to think, so that responsibility for complying with the law can be passed back to suppliers.

In fact due diligence puts the onus on everyone in the food chain to make sure they properly assess the risks and then ensure that they have the proper processes in place to control them.

It allows caterers to show that they take all necessary precautions to prevent food poisoning outbreaks occurring.

Unfortunately it is a sad fact that too many people working in kitchens have inadequate skills for the tasks in hand. The latest food hygiene laws put the responsibility on to employers to make sure that those people are trained better and to ensure they have systems in place to prevent them making serious mistakes.

Having gone through so many legislative changes in the past few years, the last thing the industry needs is more change.

Instead, EHOs should be encouraged by everyone to apply a little more common sense to the rules which they have a duty to enforce.

GARY CROSSLEY

Editor

Caterer & Hotelkeeper