Frequently Asked Questions

General

The corner shop I use is not very clean or tidy - can the Council send someone round to inspect it?
Inspections are programmed according to risk. In order to direct resources where they are most needed, visits outside the inspections programme will usually only be made if there is a risk to health.

For more information on what we would investigate and how to make a complaint visit Advice guidance and service requests

What should I do if I find insects in my food?
Insects can get into food at the production stage, before it is packaged, in the retailer's shop or in your own home. Bring the food into our office and provide details to our officers. An officer will try to determine the source of the insects and provide advice on the best course of action.

For more information visit Food Sampling.

I have become ill after eating at a local restaurant - what should I do?
Contact your GP as soon as possible. He or she will assess your condition and probably ask you for a stool sample - this can establish what kind of food poisoning you may have, and with this information Environmental Health Officers may be able to link your illness to what you have eaten.

Remember however that most cases of food poisoning originate in the home! People often assume that the last meal they ate was the cause of their food poisoning symptoms. In fact the most common form of food poisoning can result from food eaten up to 11 days prior to symptoms becoming apparent.

This obviously makes it difficult for officers to identify the cause of the illness unless a number of people (who haven't eaten any other meals together) have similar symptoms after eating food from the same source.

What can Environmental Health Officers do about a case of food poisoning?
In single cases of food poisoning, officers can offer advice about the possible sources of the illness and ways food poisoning can be avoided.

Where there are a number of cases of the illness, officers will investigate to determine if there is a common link to water, food or another source and seek to reduce the risk to other members of the public. We may also make visits to food businesses where a suspected food poisonings may have resulted from.

Is it illegal for a shop to have out-of-date food on display?
Not necessarily - what matters is the condition of the food when it is sold. Some date marking is only for guidance ('Best Before') but food which is past its 'Use By' date should not be eaten.

The best advice is 'if food is out of date, don't buy it' and if a shop consistently displays out-of-date food, shop elsewhere!.

Does a restaurant have to have a public toilet?
In Westminster we encourage Restaurants and Cafes to provide toilets for the public. We accept that sometimes due to the small size of the premises or because of building restraints it is not always possible for toilets to be provided for the customers.

We ensure that all premises with a drinks licence permitting the drinking of alcohol on the premises have toilets for the public. We ensure that all premises that have late night licences ( i.e. open after 1100 p.m. have toilets for the public ).

Does a restaurant have to provide tap water?
A restaurant doesn't have to provide tap water to the public. They will have tap water on the premises to prepare and wash food.

There are some Night Clubs however, which used to have a condition on their licence that drinking water be freely available (to prevent dancers suffering from dehydration perhaps by drug misuse)