Regulate restaurants (From The Argus)

Regulate restaurants

8:30am Saturday 11th February 2012 in Your Argus

While it is laudable that the number of city restaurants to have been rated excellent for food safety has risen dramatically (The Argus, February 3), it is nevertheless disconcerting there remain a minority of renegade restaurants with a no-star rating, showing “little or no appreciation of food safety”.

Having spent a lifetime in the catering and hospitality industry, I have always advocated that as premises selling alcohol must be annually licenced, so too should food premises.

The city’s environmental health department does an excellent job in monitoring food premises and in educating owners in safe food handling practices. It is normally as a last resort that it serves a notice of closure.

Only by licensing will it ensure only fit and proper owners are operating safely and that unwary consumers are protected.

Robin Tulley, Honey Croft, Hove