Glenn Wickman
RESTAURANTS and bars throughout the Valencian Community will be awarded points according to their food safety standards, with the results to be made available to the public.
The move, encouraged by the EU, was announced by the regional Public Health department on Monday (December 14) and is aimed at helping customers make an informed decision about where to eat.
Conservation and manipulation of foodstuffs, cross-contamination, cleanliness and pest control will be among the main areas targeted by inspectors, outlining each establishment’s level of compliance with official European health and safety laws.
Negative points will be awarded for each instance of non-compliance according to severity, resulting in a general qualification of ‘favourable’, ‘favourable with conditions’ or ‘unfavourable’.
These results will then be made available to potential customers in a way that is easy to understand.
With this announcement, Valencia has become one of the first regions in Spain to apply the qualification programme. It has been welcomed by the Organisation of Consumers and Users (OCU), who have been campaigning for its implementation since 2018.
According to the OCU, similar systems have already been launched in the UK, France and Denmark, with slight variations – while the UK uses numbers 1 to 5, Denmark relies on emojis ranging from a smiley face to an angry one.
