Great Yarmouth has a whole host of glittering caterers - shown by its record number of five star businesses.

Over the last two years the Borough Council has been running its own award scheme to promote good hygiene standards.

It has been such success that more than 23 per cent of food businesses have received the top award of five stars.

“This is an outstanding result,” said Kate Watts, Commercial Team Manager for Environmental Health. ”Nearly a quarter of all food businesses have reached the top grade, which equates to being excellent in terms of the borough’s food hygiene standards.”

More than 800 food businesses have been inspected by Environmental Health and assessed under the council’s scheme. Some have been through the process more than once to ensure that improvements have been carried out.

“One of the things I find most rewarding is visiting a premise which has improved since its previous inspection, so I am able to award more stars,” added Kate.

“I also get a lot of businesses asking how they can improve on the stars they already have. The easiest way is to ensure a business implements a full system based on the principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. This means ensuring things such as keeping temperature records up to date, however this system should also analyse the business as a whole to make sure it is producing safe food. Environmental Health is always happy to give advice to businesses regarding this.”

If you want to know if a premises has been rated then please visit www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/food_safety_awards.  For further information contact Environmental Health on 01493 846 478

There are some businesses the Council doesn’t give star awards to - simply because they are not dealing with high risk open foods on a daily basis. A list of these is premises can be found on the Council’s website at www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/food_safety_awards.