Poor hygiene in a lot of popular food outlets

Exposed: the hygiene scandal on the high street
article in the Independent

Extract:

"Restaurants run by some of Britain's largest food chains are failing to meet basic legal hygiene standards, an investigation by The Independent has found.

A third of Yo! Sushi restaurants surveyed did not meet all the legal standards required of them, according to food safety ratings given by local councils. Twenty per cent of Pizza Hut outlets had similar problems while 18 of Pizza Express's 132 surveyed restaurants did not meet the standards.

Britain's foremost food expert, Professor Hugh Pennington, said the findings were disturbing.

Under the law, all restaurants are inspected every two years by environmental health officers and most hand out star ratings of between five and zero. Restaurants with no stars are "very poor" with a general failure to comply with legal requirements. One-star establishments have poor compliance while those with two stars need to make more effort to hit all the legal requirements – designed to stop the spread of bacteria that can cause gastro-intestinal diseases.

The Independent analysed the star rating of 1,270 outlets run by 10 of Britain's best-known restaurant chains. They include the likes of McDonald's, Burger King and KFC as well as more upmarket chains such as Pizza Express, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Wagamama. Separately we used the Freedom of Information act to obtain reports on the most unhygienic restaurants. All of the companies had at least one branch, and in some cases dozens, failing fully to comply with food safety legislation.

Yo! Sushi, the Japanese seafood chain, was the worst performer of the 10 chains, with eight of its 23 restaurants in our sample (two thirds of its 37 outlets) receiving two stars or less.

Almost one in five Pizza Hut outlets failed to score three stars, deemed as meeting all legal requirements. For Pizza Express, one in eight was found to have unsatisfactory problems.

Among the individual reports, an inspector who called at Yo! Sushi in Soho, central London, in October 2006 found dirty staff changing areas, failures in defrosting and cooking, dirty floors, mice droppings on a food shelf, slime on cutting boards and no records of staff training. "Staff understood the basics but were not attending to cleanliness," reported Westminster Council's inspector. The restaurant in Rupert Street was subsequently closed.

In January last year, Pizza Express in St Martin's Lane, central London, was found to have mice droppings under and behind the pizza oven, a dirty ice machine and dirty chopping boards.

At Pizza Hut in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, last September, dirt and grease were clogged in the broken flooring and the general standard of cleanliness was "poor". The chain was ordered to clean the walls, floors, wheels and under the equipment.

The problems were much less prevalent at chains such as Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Pret A Manger, which had good hygiene at 98 per cent of its shops.

Professor Pennington said: "Any restaurant scoring two stars [more effort required to meet all legal requirements] is unsafe. Lower scores indicate imminent danger. I would expect those with a score of zero to have been closed on the spot.""

Britain's hospitals are buying special equipment to cope with increasingly obese patients. - They should be providing low salt/sodium meals for them.

Hospitals on 'supersize' alert - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Hospitals have doubled their spending on "supersize" beds, trolleys and mortuary fridges to cope with increasingly obese patients.

An investigation of 150 hospital trusts shows the amount spent by the NHS on equipment that can take the weight of increasingly huge patients has risen from £5.8 million to £13 million in just three years.

Hospitals said they were treating increasing numbers of "super-heavy" patients weighing 40 stone and more. Several said they had been forced to ban the heaviest patients from floors which could not take their weight.

Data collected by the Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information Act shows the average hospital spent £60,000 on supersized equipment this year, compared with £30,000 spent three years ago."

Its health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "This is a stark and depressing demonstration of the failure of this Government to tackle the problem of obesity.""

The main cause of morbid obesity is pharmaceutical drugs, recklessly over-prescribed by doctors insufficiently knowledgeable about their adverse side-effects and failing to do appropriate monitoring. - The main drugs that cause obesity are steroids like prednisone and prednisolone, oestrogen-containing medications like HRT, and tricyclic anti-depressants like amitriptyline. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Britain: one in three primary-school leavers is overweight, - The cause of obesity in children is misinformation by the 'experts'.

One in three primary-school leavers overweight - Telegraph

Extracts:

1) "One in three children leaving primary school in some parts of Britain are overweight, it has emerged.

New figures released by the Department of Health have also shown that one quarter of children are already obese when they start school before the age of five.

The statistics form part of a nationwide survey of children’s weight which is currently being carried out by the Government.

Figures released by 10 primary care trusts under the Freedom of Information Act have prompted experts to fear that the obesity epidemic has been grossly underestimated.

The findings suggest the Government may not meet its target of stopping the increase in obesity among under-11s by 2010. "

2) "The research comes as a poll for high-street supermarket Sainsbury’s found that weight-conscious teenage girls are not eating enough calories for their age group.

It revealed just over a third of 13 to 18-year-old girls are on diets or have dieted recently and 45 per cent eat less than 1,200 calories per day, which is below the recommended intake.

Only 14 per cent of the teenaged boys surveyed admitted to dieting but a quarter consumed fewer than 800 calories per day - as little as one third of their recommended daily amount."

The second extract provides the explanation for this increasing problem of obesity - namely the continued incorrect advice that 'experts' give about how to reduce obesity. The advice is based on the assumption - unsupported by scientific evidence - that obesity is caused by overeating and can be remedied by eating less, i.e. dieting. - This is catastrophically harmful advice because, as you have just read, it leads to obese people eating insufficient food - particularly damaging to children.

In fact, obesity is caused not by overeating, but by fluid retention, and fluid retention is exacerbated by 'slimming'/dieting...

To reduce fluid retention, and thereby reduce excess weight/obesity, it is necessary to cut down on salt/sodium intake. Eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables makes weight loss faster, because these are foods rich in potassium, and potassium helps to remove sodium and the water that accompanies it from the body - by way of the urine.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Obesity in children: - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

British hospitals: filthy, verminous, appallingly unhygienic kitchens.

Scandal of filthy hospital kitchens - Observer

Extract:

"A searing indictment of the cleanliness of hospital kitchens is revealed today in research showing that almost half are plagued by vermin, risk infections by storing food incorrectly or employ staff with poor personal hygiene.

Official inspection reports reveal that breaches of food hygiene laws include infestations of mice and cockroaches, kitchen staff not washing their hands, food being kept at the wrong temperature and remnants of meals becoming stuck in equipment.

Other hazardous incidents included ice cream and prawns being stored together in fridges and freezers, orange juice kept next to chemicals and patients' meal trays being used to transport contaminated material from the wards.

The reality of the conditions in which hospital food is prepared is laid bare in a series of official hygiene examinations carried out by environmental health officers, which have been passed to The Observer.

Of 377 National Health Service and private hospitals surveyed in England, 173 - 46 per cent - were found to have poor cleanliness in their kitchens, or canteens or cafes used by staff, patients and visitors. Nine of the 377 were private hospitals, of which six were found to have at least one area of concern. Eleven of the 173 had experienced a vermin or pest problem, 57 employed catering staff who displayed inadequate personal hygiene and 18 were found to stock out-of-date food. Sixty-eight did not meet the legal minimum standard for food storage and 66 were storing food at the wrong temperature, which can stimulate the growth of bacteria.

'These findings paint a shocking picture of hospital food hygiene,' said the Liberal Democrats' shadow health secretary, Norman Lamb, who used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain from 145 local authorities their most recent food hygiene inspection reports for hospitals they monitor.

'It is simply unacceptable that such terrible practices are taking place in an environment where hygiene and safety should be paramount. Sick people are already vulnerable to infection. They don't need the added risk of food-borne bacteria spread by lax standards.'

He suggested the creation of a new system of clear and accessible ratings for hygiene levels in hospital kitchens, with the worst performers being 'named and shamed' as a way of driving up standards to benefit patients."

I'm well impressed by Norman Lamb's tenacity in getting at the facts in this and other health matters. While bad practice is hidden, it continues and usually worsens. Once light is shed on bad practice, there is much more likelihood that some remedial action will be taken. - 'Naming and shaming', as he suggests, sounds an excellent idea. - 'Naming and sacking' would be even more effective, in my opinion...


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

UK civil servants have been ordered to destroy reports on controversial, multi-billion-pound NHS and ID card computer projects to hide mismanagement.

'Scandal' over shredded reports - Telegraph

Extract:

"Civil servants have been ordered to destroy reports on controversial, multi-billion-pound NHS and ID card computer projects in an attempt to keep details of mismanagement from the public, it was claimed last night.

The order, given to officials at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), was condemned by the Tories and Liberal Democrats, who accused the Government of trying to hide details of bungled computer schemes.

The guidance to officials, seen by Computer Weekly Online, has come to light as the OGC is involved in a legal battle to prevent the release of "gateway review reports" on the contentious £5.3 billion ID card scheme.
An official tribunal last month upheld a decision that the documents should be disclosed after a Freedom of Information Act request, but the OGC is appealing against the decision at the High Court. Its paper tells civil servants to shred gateway review reports, which are internal assessments of the projects.

"You must securely dispose of the [final gateway] report and all supporting documents immediately after delivery of the final report," it says.

The reports are carried out by independent specialists to monitor progress and assess the chances of success. As well as the ID card report, another has been carried out on the NHS's £12.4 billion National Programme for IT."

Appalling and indeed scandalous - but nothing this government does surprises anybody any more...)o:


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

The cost of parking at your NHS hospital: £95m

The cost of parking at your hospital: £95m

Extracts:

"NHS hospitals were yesterday accused of exploiting the "most vulnerable" after they were found to have made more than £95 million in parking charges last year.

Patients attending for treatment and relatives or friends visiting people in hospital were charged up to £3.50 an hour despite paying to build car parks through their taxes.

Last night, the cancer charity Macmillan, which obtained details through Freedom of Information, called for an end to the "shameful" charges. Two trusts each raised more than £2 million and a further 30 raised more than £1 million each from "outrageous charges on the weak and vulnerable''.

Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust took £2,414,672 and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust took £2,263,297.

Patients and visitors often have no choice but to use hospital parking, which used to be free. Some out-patients are too weak to walk further from their car and many of those who visit in-patients are themselves elderly or infirm.

The charity Macmillan Cancer Support Research raised the parking issue yesterday on behalf of cancer patients who have to make regular hospital visits. It said the £95 million total was shocking.

Judy Beard, Macmillan's acting chief executive, said: "Cancer patients spend hundreds of pounds each year on hospital parking. Macmillan wants to see all cancer patients travelling regularly for treatment to be able to park free."

"Hospitals have also started to charge for bedside telephones and television sets and many have replaced charity-run cafes with more expensive cafeterias."

British government's vaccine officials knew about MMR risks many years ago, newly released documents reveal.

Vaccine officials knew about MMR risks article in today's Daily Telegraph.

Extract:

"Government officials were made aware of some problems with a version of the MMR vaccine in other countries but still introduced it in Britain in the late 1980s, newly released documents show.

The MMR vaccine with the Urabe strain of mumps was first used in Britain in October 1988. It was blamed for the deaths of several children after being withdrawn by the Department of Health in September 1992.

Previously confidential documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show how officials gradually learned of the dangers of the Urabe strain MMR which caused encephalitis-type conditions, including meningitis. Involving swelling of the brain or of the lining of the brain or spinal chord, they can lead to brain damage, deafness or even death.

The papers show that many months before the Urabe MMR vaccine was introduced in the UK, officials were made aware of problems in America, Sweden and Canada. "

What can we conclude from these revelations? - Well my personal conclusions are that this is further evidence that UK governments cannot be trusted, nor can their health officials, and that the drug companies retain their sinister reputation for avoiding disclosure of adverse side-effects of their evermore dangerous products...)o: