Licensing call over unhygienic food

The Consumers' Association has called for all food outlets to be licensed after finding that the standard of hygiene falls badly below public health guidelines.

Research carried out by the Consumers' Association, which visited cafes, kiosks and restaurants at places like Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Alton Towers found that a third of the food samples taken were below standard.

Researchers visited 13 tourist attractions round the country and bought a variety of sandwiches, ice-creams and burgers.

Sandwiches were found to be the worst offenders with a fifth containing food poisoning levels deemed to be unsatisfactory and half containing high levels of general bacteria, indicating poor hygiene practices.

Staff in half the places visited did not have their hair tied back or covered and many did not bother to wear gloves when handling the food.