Carmarthenshire one of the best for food standards inspections

Carmarthenshire has been named as one of the best performing councils across the UK for food standards interventions by Which?.

The nation-wide consumer advice, research, testing and ratings organisation has identified Carmarthenshire County Council as one of the best for its interventions to ensure food standards and safety, and also as one of the councils who have carried out the most number of test samples.

Food standard interventions are designed to monitor, support and increase food law compliance within food establishments, and include activities such as surveillance, verification, audit, inspection, intelligence gathering, advice, education, sampling and analysis.

The council achieved 99.63% of standards according to FSA statistics for the latest year available.

In terms of the samples it has taken, in the last year alone the council has conducted 341 of standards sampling, equating to 1.85 per 1000 population, according to the FSA data.

Sampling is important to verify, through analysis, compliance with food law.

A spokesman for Which? said: “We want consumers to be able to be confident in the food they eat and welcome Carmarthenshire County Council’s efforts on food enforcement.”

Which? is campaigning for better national co-ordination of food enforcement across the UK in collaboration with local authorities so consumers can be confident in the food they eat.

Cllr Jim Jones, Executive Board Member for Public Protection, said: “We take food standards very seriously, an attitude which is quite clearly reflected in this recent FSA data .

“I’m very pleased that we are amongst the best performing councils across the whole of the UK, and thank every member of the team for all their hard work.”