Food hygiene standards stay variable
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THE wooden underworld of everyday life at a Roman fort in Northumberland is to go on show, thanks to a £1.3m lottery grant.
About 1,700 wooden objects have been unearthed in annual excavations at Vindolanda, which was the site of nine separate forts over the centuries.
Organic material such as wood, leather and textiles have survived in the oxygen-free ground conditions of the site.
But special environmental controls are necessary to display the wooden items – and now the Heritage Lottery Grant (HLF) will enable many items in the collection of wooden Roman artefacts to go on public display for the first time.
Construction work is expected to start on site this summer, with the new gallery and activity room opening late next spring. Vindolanda is best known as the discovery place of Britain’s oldest surviving handwritten documents, with the thin wooden writing tablets being voted as Britain’s top archaeological treasure by the British Museum.
Examples are on show at Vindolanda in the display area. But among thousands of Roman shoes and other organic material are wooden objects such as 3m long water pipes which were still operating when excavated, and the most complete and earliest pine wooden toilet seat to be found in the Roman empire.
Other objects range from a bread oven shovel, bath clogs and part of a waggon wheel to everyday tools, cooking utensils, furniture and a barrel stave with the maker’s name from Spain which probably contained wine. Wood to the Romans was what plastic today is for us and what is fascinating is that these wooden objects take us into the everyday lives of people in the forts,” said Vindolanda spokeswoman Sonya Galloway.
The ‘Unlocking Vindolanda’s Wooden Underworld’ project will expand the site’s current museum by creating the new gallery with display cases allowing temperature and humidity to be kept at safe levels.
Visitors will also learn about the survival story of the collection – from the science behind how they lasted two millennia to their conservation and the research that is uncovering their origins. Patricia Birley, chairwoman of the Vindolanda Trust’s development and impact committee, said: “Many of these incredible wooden objects would have remained in storage and unseen without the support of the National Lottery. The new fit-for-purpose extension will be linked to an activity area creating a vibrant hub for visitors and volunteers.” A HUGE variation in food hygiene standards remains across the UK, with one in five high or mediumrisk food outlets failing to meet standards, according to a study.
Which? found that the chance of a consumer buying from a food business that is not meeting hygiene standards is as high as one in three in 20 local authorities.
This figure rose to almost two in every three outlets in the lowestrated local authority area, Hyndburn in Lancashire.
The consumer group analysed data submitted to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) by 386 UK local authorities and ranked those local authority areas, focusing on those considered high risk such as hospitals, care homes and schools, and medium-risk businesses such as a local restaurant or takeaway.
It found that just 35% of Hyndburn’s medium and high-risk businesses were meeting acceptable hygiene standards, while Birmingham was second on 59%.
Four London local authority areas – Newham, Ealing, Lewisham and Camden – were all ranked in the bottom 10.
In contrast, 82% of medium to high-risk businesses were compliant in Leeds, which has a comparable total of 7,603 premises.
Erewash in Derbyshire topped the table with a 97% compliance rate, and Sunderland was the highest-ranking metropolitan borough in England.
The five most-improved local authority areas since Which? last carried out its analysis two years ago are Bexley, Sunderland, Stockport, South Cambridgeshire and Barrow-in Furness.
A current review by the FSA and FSS into the food enforcement system is looking at options such as tighter checks when a food business opens and how data from businesses can be used more effectively. +,$' .* .* ,