SUB-STANDARD takeaways and restaurants could be named and shamed as part of a ‘scores on the doors’ scheme.

Rossendale Council will inspect all food premises in the valley, including cafes, takeaways and restaurants,and give them a hygiene rating as part of the proposed scheme.

This information will then be made available to the public on show at the premises as well as on the internet.

Under the proposal, Rossendale Council will introduce ‘a published grading system’ of all food premises in the borough.

The report states that the ‘primary purpose’ of the scheme is to ‘inform and empower consumers’ but also to ‘encourage businesses to raise their hygiene standards.’ Several other local authorities, including Blackburn with Darwen, have developed their own schemes and a number of them are currently publishing information on the internet.

Several of them involve a star system, where every cafe, restaurant and takeaway in the respective area is given a rating out of five stars, with more stars awarded, depending on how hygienic they are considered to be.

In Lancashire, local authorities including Blackburn with Darwen Council Borough Council and Preston City Council have developed successful schemes.

Due to the success of these schemes, the Food Standards Agency has made a commitment to recommend a national Scores on the Doors campaign by the end of 2008.

The council report states that consumers will be able to ‘make informed choices about where to purchase their food’ if the scheme is approved.

Rossendale Council’s cabinet is set to discuss the proposal at their meeting at Hardman’s Mill, New Hall Hey, on Wednesday (September 10).