Where is it dirty, and where isn’t it? Food Authority reports go online
Inspection reports on restaurants in Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam are being published online by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. Now everyone can see which restaurants are not meeting hygiene standards. Or can they?
People will soon be able to view the NVWA’s most recent reports on the website. And that is precisely the problem: suppose a restaurant received a poor rating years ago but has since turned things around—the report with its failing marks will remain online. The Food Authority visits restaurants on a random basis; Koninklijke Horeca Nederland calls it a lottery.
Neat and clean
The purpose of the online reports: transparency. If you are going out to eat, you can quickly check online how neat and clean the restaurant where you have made a reservation is. The House of Representatives had wanted the reports to be made public; previously, they could only be viewed after a WOB request.
Going online bit by bit
The reports on restaurants in the four cities will be published online bit by bit; an entire stack of reports will not suddenly be added to the website. The restaurants are named in full in the reports, so it is not difficult to see who has been reprimanded by inspectors. Trade association Koninklijke Horeca is not happy. Director Dirk Beljaarts tells NOS that there is room for arbitrariness. ‘NVWA inspections are not carried out systematically; it is a kind of lottery as to who gets inspected. That is not fair.’
Online review
Most restaurants are not too concerned. An employee at a roti restaurant, which can be found on the website with a negative note, says: ‘I would simply rely on reviews myself if I were going out to eat somewhere.’
