Our restaurants among cleanest
SOUTHPORT is one of the most hygienic places to eat in the country, according to a report called Food Hygiene: Know the score.
The report analysed data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Hygiene Rating Scheme to provide an overall picture of how 250,000 of Britain’s food establishments compare on a regional and national level. It rated places on an average score out of five and included both restaurants and takeaways.
In the top 10 list, Southport came third with a score of 4.76 out of five.
It was beaten by only Hastings, South East at 4.82 and Harrogate, Yorkshire and Humberside, which came out on top at 4.85 and has the highest rating nationally across all of its 311 establishments.
In the bottom ten was Birkenhead 3.92, Wigan, 3.86, St Helens 3.86, and Bolton 3.83.
Walsall, West Midlands, came bottom with a score of 3.68.
Southport has always boasted an excellent selection of five star restaurants.
Glenys, co-owner of Lord Street restaurant the Mezzanine said: “Health and safety offer advice. Regulations are in place to help establishments identify health risks and courses are there for staff to understand why food needs to be stored and handled correctly.
“I think that the Southport health and safety team do a good job in keeping standards high.”
The Mezzanine has excellent reviews on TripAdvisor and has been rated on independent data analyser Grub Bee website as the highest rating of 5 - “very good”.
Glenys said: “As owners, we want the public to have confidence in our cleanliness and know that their hard earned day out is not going to end with tummy problems from something they’ve eaten locally.”
Sefton Council food hygiene officers carry out inspections locally and advise businesses on how to improve. A poor food hygiene rating can have a detrimental impact on businesses.
Southport Business Improvement District is an independent organisation that represents more than 950 businesses in Southport town centre.
A spokesman for Southport Bid said: “These rankings confirm what we all know: that Southport’s reputation as a destination for quality restaurants serving quality food is up there amongst the very best.”
To find out more about the report, please visit www.highspeedtraining. co.uk/hub/food-hygiene-ratingsreport-2019.