One-Star Food Hygiene Rating - EHO Letter Arrives
Imagine starting your day with a letter from the Environmental Health Officer (EHO). You open it, and your eyes widen as you see the sticker inside – a 1-star food hygiene rating. What?????? It has to be a mistake right? 🙁 Things didn’t seem that bad during the recent EHO inspection. Now you’re left worrying how this is going to impact your business, your reputation, and your finances. This situation could happen to anyone. So let’s consider it. Let’s talk about what emergency steps you need to take to protect your business reputation from a media meltdown.
Does a 1-Star Food Hygiene Rating Really Matter?
A 1-star rating might seem like a bureaucratic tick-box exercise, focusing purely on paperwork and red tape. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a signal to your customers, to your competitors and the wider public about the standards in your business. It signals how much your business prioritises customer safety and whether you are putting customers lives at risk. Put another way, a low food hygiene rating sends out the wrong message. It implies that not only is your premises dirty, but it is unsafe and that eating your food could make a customer very ill.
Have You Thought About How Your Hygiene Rating Reflects On Your Brand?
Think about it for a moment. Is there a disconnect between the brand image your business is projecting and the hygiene sticker displayed on the front door of your premises? Would it matter to your customers if you had a low rating? If left unchecked, a poor hygiene rating can have unpleasant consequences, not just for customers, but also for your business. Let’s face it, in this digital age – bad news travels fast. It takes one viral social media post or sensational news story and suddenly trust in your business is on the line.
Common Mistakes A Food Business Owner Makes
It’s easy to panic or go into denial after receiving a poor hygiene rating. But ignoring it or getting defensive won’t make it go away. Instead, it’s important to take quick, strategic action. Larger companies often have a crisis management plan in place. But smaller businesses are typically caught off guard. Yet, preparation is the best, simplest action you can take. Being prepared should be your priority. Then, if disaster strikes, the situation will be a breeze. Because everyone will know what to do, and your business can roll into action quickly. A slow response is not your friend and neither is no response!
What Does A 1-Food Hygiene Rating Mean?
Before we begin, let’s remind ourselves what a 1-Food Hygiene Rating means.
You may know this already – that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) hygiene rating provides a snapshot to your customers. The score is an assessment of the cleanliness, food handling practices, and overall safety standards within your business at one moment in time.
As a recap, let’s look at what the lowest food hygiene rating scores mean:
• 0 Stars: Urgent improvements required due to serious risks to public health.
• 1 Star: Major improvements needed to avoid further enforcement action.
• 2 Stars: Still problematic, requiring significant improvements.
Food hygiene ratings aren’t just about a number on a sticker – food hygiene ratings are public information. Customers expect to check them online, and third-party food delivery platforms (Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat) often have minimum hygiene requirements. So if you do not meet them, you will not be allowed onto their platform. And this can mean revenue loss.
Beyond the Sticker: Longer-Term Impact of a 1 Hygiene Rating
It’s important to be aware that the consequences of a 1 hygiene rating go beyond any immediate reputational damage.
Here are some consequences that you might not have thought about:
• Increased EHO Scrutiny: Future inspections are likely to be more frequent and thorough.
• Insurance Costs: Some insurers may hike up the premium or refuse cover.
• Supplier and Partner Relationships: Wholesalers may hesitate to work with businesses that have a poor hygiene rating.
• Financial Struggles: Securing loans or investment becomes more challenging.
• Recruitment Issues: The best people may be reluctant to join a business with a tarnished reputation.
Dismal right? 🙁 So what about the emotional toll of a low hygiene rating?
The Emotional Toll of a Low Hygiene Rating
A poor food hygiene rating sticker displayed at the front of your food business doesn’t just influence customers. It can have a damaging effect on the emotions of the whole team. This includes business owners, managers, the head chef and other staff. Stress, anger, shame and a dented sense of pride are common reactions to a low hygiene rating. It can shatter team morale and hurt staff performance. Not surprisingly, you may feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start to turn things around. Don’t be disheartened, as there is a way out of this…
Finding Opportunity In A Crisis
The truth is, it could happen to any business – being given a 1 Food Hygiene Rating. And if it happened to yours, it doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Even Michelin star restaurants get it wrong. You can recover from a poor rating. But to do so you must follow the right steps, in the right timeframe. In terms of protecting your business reputation, you must act quickly.
That’s where we come in. As a food safety company we help you put systems into place to comply with food law. We also provide expert guidance and practical tools to manage the fallout from a crisis.
This is why we designed an Emergency Rescue toolkit for the small business owner. It is something clients often ask for advice on.
The Crisis Comms Kit will guide you to manage the immediate reputation damage (the fallout). It is designed to help you cope with the emergency situation when your hygiene rating goes public. It guides you to know what to do with the embarrassment. It has been prepared specifically for the food business owner who cares about their food hygiene rating. So now you know its purpose, let’s go over what is included in the FREE Kit.
What Is Included in the Crisis Comms Kit?
This FREE Reputation Rescue toolkit will give you:
Step-by-Step Guidance: Emergency guidance in bite-sized easy-to-follow steps to move you from feeling in chaos, to back in-control. Use immediately after receiving the EHO letter with that dismal new hygiene rating.
Done-for-You Social Media Calendar: 14-days of pre-planned content ideas and example social media posts – just copy, tweak and share on Instagram or Facebook. Then rinse and repeat until you feel on top of the crisis! Use to stay visible and credible to your customers.
Journalist Handling Protocol: Handle media enquiries like a pro with a ready-made journalist-friendly statement. Because we all know the Press loves to name and shame businesses with a low hygiene rating! 😉
Tips and Advice On How To Deal With Customer Criticism: Handle customer complaints and negative feedback like a pro and avoid common mistakes.
Protect your business reputation FAST when your poor food hygiene rating goes public. Yes, you CAN do this!
Download Your FREE Copy of The Crisis Comms Kit Now.
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