Food poisoning, like root canal surgery and fancy dress, really is no fun. At best it’s hellish. At worst, unlike fancy dress, it can be fatal. According to a report from the Food Standards Agency, there were an estimated 2.4m cases of foodborne illness in the UK in 2018, 16,400 of which resulted in hospital admissions. Roughly 180 people died. There can be potentially serious consequences to the poor handling of ingredients, to lousy kitchen hygiene and grossly incompetent cooking.
The question I have been asked is this: to what extent is it my responsibility as a restaurant critic, to protect potential diners from this harm? The question arose because a restaurant upon which I had bestowed a glowing review turned out to have been given a score of just one out of five for food hygiene, meaning major improvement was necessary. I was unaware of this because I did not check the so-called “scores on the doors” before visiting. Full disclosure: I never do.
