Instead of serving Love Potion No 9, Martin Hickman in Chinese restaurants top of the menu for food poisoning (The Independent, May 29) serves us some facts from a national survey of UK restaurants and takeout kitchens.
Here's an excerpt:
"A national survey of hygiene ratings found that more than half of 491 Chinese outlets failed to meet all legal requirements aimed at preventing food poisoning among diners.
Almost half of Indian restaurants
and takeaways surveyed also scored poorly in the survey of different cuisines, which was carried out for The Independent.
Similarly low ratings were given to kebab shops, while failings were found at a quarter of fish and chip shops and one in five Italian establishments.
By contrast, corporate burger bars run by McDonald's and KFC chicken
houses were found to be very clean.
Environmental health officers believe Chinese and Indian chefs struggle on hygiene because of "a combination of culture and language", according to Paul Hiscoe, a director of Transparency Data, which carried out the survey. They did not always understand food laws and often had difficulty understanding instructions from council officers, he said."
Does it all comes down to culture and literacy?
If all this got you running scared about eating out in the UK, Scores on the Doors offers Food Hygiene Ratings on 106,000 eateries submitted by 104 British Councils.
Peace of mind (and stomach) is only a few clicks away.