Jersey restaurants and cafés have been subject to a compulsory inspection as part of the health and safety initiative since 2014, rating them from zero to five stars based on their levels of hygiene. 99.8 per cent are currently compliant with the law.
Statistics from the Food Standards Agency in the UK show that 94 per cent of restaurants comply with the law.
Since the scheme’s launch in October 2014, the total number of restaurants and cafés inspected has grown from 867 to 1,077, which has contributed to reported cases of food poisoning across Jersey going down by 15 per cent last year.
Caroline Maffia, the assistant director for Environmental Health, said that for any establishment to get a zero-stars rating means that levels of hygiene and food preparation would be ‘out of control and quite serious, such as posing a risk of an outbreak of food poisoning in the community’ or an ‘infestation of rats or cockroaches’.
Since the scheme launched over three years ago, the number of eateries with a zero-star rating has gone from nine to zero across the Island, Ms Maffia confirmed.
Ms Maffia also said that Snow Hill was the only one to have ‘solidly remained at a two-star rating’ over the past three years.
She explained that by receiving a rating of two stars any outlet was breaking Jersey’s 1966 Food Safety Laws by failing to meet basic cleaning standards. However, as Snow Hill Fish Bar is a fish and chip shop they are not posing a high risk to the population because they typically deep-fry all their food, which kills most of the harmful bacteria and thereby diminishes risk and avoids temporary or permanent closure.
