Food safety team to star in BBC’s The One Show

The city council’s lead food safety officer will be one of the stars of the show in tomorrow night’s (Thursday 10) screening of the BBC’s The One Show at 7pm.

Jaan Stanton, leader of the council’s food safety team, will feature in a three-minute clip as he goes about his work inspecting some of the city’s food premises as part of the council’s ‘Scores on the doors' scheme.

The scheme works by awarding food premises a score of between zero and five stars based on how well they comply with food hygiene regulations.

Footage from the programme features The One Show presenter, Dominic Littlewood, as he follows Jaan on his travels to Macintosh’s Canteen where owner Henry Watt is interviewed about the scheme as Jaan carries out an inspection of the premises. Then the film crew pay a visit to Bombay Spice on St Augustines Street as Jaan continues his work.

Created by Jaan in the late 1990’s and implemented in 2005, the pioneering scores on the doors scheme has proved a big hit with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and other authorities. The FSA are now working towards having a single national food hygiene ratings system that all local authorities will use.

Speaking ahead of his TV appearance, Jaan said: “We were delighted to be asked to take part in filming for The One Show. It gave us the opportunity to show people all the behind-the-scenes work that we do to make sure residents and visitors can access information about food hygiene standards in restaurants and food premises they choose to eat in around the city.”

Although other council’s across the country have developed their own versions of food safety schemes, there has been no nationally standardised and recognised scheme implemented by all authorities to date.

But that is set to change after representatives from the FSA asked Jaan to join them for a six-month secondment to rally support for a nationally recognised scheme and the national roll-out of the programme.

Jaan, who has just begun his secondment with the FSA, added: “It was a tremendous honour to be asked to help the FSA. I'm very excited to be part of the team responsible for the national rollout of a project that started in Norwich back in the late 1990s”.

Graeme Thomson, series producer for The One Show, said: “The One Show approached Norwich City Council because the food safety team, under Jaan, had collaborated on a similar project for the BBC in the past.

“Norwich was also at the forefront of developing the five star system that has been adopted by the FSA. The aim of the item is to tell people that if they want to know the hygiene standards of the kitchen in their local restaurant that information is now just a click away.

“Around two thirds of councils have signed up to the five star scheme - which is by no means all. So if you want a balti in Birmingham you can look up the restaurant but if you want a steak in Southampton you can't. What's needed is one national scheme with all councils on board.”

To access the council’s star ratings of food premises in Norwich click on safer food awards.