Will restaurants have to be licensed eventually

asks Johnjo:

A. Perhaps. A recent inspection by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Officers (CIEHO) found that half of the UK's 600,000 food outlets fail to meet basic standards of hygiene.

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Q. Why
A. At the moment, anyone can set up a caf� or restaurant and start selling food.

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Q. Don't they need hygiene certificates or some kind of qualification
A. No. They don't even have to have the food preparation area inspected. The CIEHO wants to license all food premises to set high food and hygiene standards to protect the general public: last year, 4.5 million people in Britain officially had food poisoning - add the unreported cases and you have an alarmingly high figure.

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Q. So this licensing idea would cover everything from celebrity chef restaurants to kebab shacks
A. Yes. The CIEHO wants each outlet to have an inspection and meet an approved standard of hygiene before being allowed to trade. The Consumers' Association, which supports licensing, would also like to see a hygiene-rating system.

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Q. What A three-dishcloth rating for the cleanest premises
A. Something like that. Customers could choose to eat at cleaner premises, which would help to push the standards up.�

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Q. Didn't Which do some restaurant checks recently
A. Yes, the Consumers' Association magazine accompanied inspectors on ten hygiene checks in restaurants in London, Birmingham and Cambridge. Of the ten, five failed the regulations.

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Q. What sort of things did they find
A. How strong is your stomach Among many violations were mice, rat droppings, mouldy vegetables and urine and water pouring into a kitchen from an upstairs toilet.

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Q. Grim. So what should customers look for in a restaurant or caf�
A. Antony Worrall Thompson recommends checking to see if the loos are clean. And take a good look at your waiter or waitress - if they're dirty, you can be sure the kitchen is, too.

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For more information about salmonella food poisoning, click here

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By Sheena Miller