A new iPhone application is making it even easier to find out the hygiene ratings of local restaurants and takeaways.

Residents with an iPhone 3GS and above, can also find out how many stars a food business has got by pointing their phone at the premises.

The national Scores on the Doors website list all the restaurants and takeaways and include all the food businesses within Carlisle, amongst other areas.  It also includes those schools which cook food on site or those premises that sell ready-to-eat food.

Food premises are scored from one to five stars with five being the top award.

The new iPhone application means that owners can simply point their iPhone at a food business and it will tell, via a radar feature, how many stars it has.

More than 1,000 Carlisle businesses (a total of 1,020), including restaurants, cafés, bars and takeaways, are currently listed on the website – www.scoresonthedoors.co.uk.  A third have the top ratings and are either five (145 businesses) or four (59 businesses) star rated. Only 12 businesses have a zero rating.

There were a total of 50,000 ‘hits’ on the Carlisle section of the Scores on the Doors website during 2009/2010 and there around 3,000 ‘hits’ each month.

Cllr Ray Bloxham, Portfolio holder for Environment, said:

"This is another way for residents, with this type of technology, to find out how their favourite restaurant has scored. More and more food premises are reaching five stars which means standard of hygiene and maintenance are improving all the time."

To download the app for free go to the iTunes appstore and search for Food Hygiene under the lifestyle section or view information here. 

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Notes to Editors:

Carlisle City Council (and all other Cumbrian Authorities) began to introduce the Scores on the Doors scheme in January 2007. Food retailers and caterers inspected by Environmental Health Officers are given a star rating based on how well they perform in terms of hygiene, structural condition and overall attitude to complying with the law.