Danish food safety icon gets a facelift
Happy, moderate or sour, those are the emoji smiles that are to remain in the future on the doors of the restaurants in Denmark. The Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mogens Jensen, has just decided to do so with a unanimous food conciliation circle behind him.
The smiley eyes that reflect the food security of a business will in future go from four possible to three: one happy, one moderately satisfied and one sour. The smiley face with the small measured smile is deleted. "Studies show that it can be difficult to figure out what the current four smiley icons stand for. As consumers, we must be able to decode the results from food control in a split second, and therefore we are now simplifying the scale so that it becomes even easier to assess whether you want to shop in a specific store or not," said minister Jensen.
Sticker replaces inspection report
In addition to a simpler smiley scale, the detailed inspection reports that hang at the store's A4-sized front doors will be replaced by a sticker with the current smiley the size of a postcard. It must continue to hang at the entrance, and the detailed inspection reports from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's visits must be available on the companies' websites and on findsmiley.dk. The new adjustments therefore do not mean that the authorities' requirements for food safety are relaxed.
Stricter visibility requirements
In future, the smiley will also follow the companies on the web and in apps. In order to meet the modern consumption patterns, where more people order food via electronic take-away services, the current smiley from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's control must also appear on, for example, Just Eat, Hungry or Room Service. This also applies to the social channels where the companies market themselves, such as Instagram or Facebook.
Goodbye to the elite smiley
The conciliation group agrees to say goodbye to the so-called Elite smiley. It has been found on the inspection reports of companies with four happy smileys in a row and zero sanctions 12 months back. But with a more focused control, the smiley becomes too hard to give.
"When we have targeted control against the companies that blow on the food legislation, it means that it can take longer before those who actually have control of the store get four visits. It therefore simply does not make sense to maintain the elite smiley when new law-abiding businessmen or existing companies with a single historical remark have to wait so long to be able to achieve elite status. That is why we are now saying goodbye to the elite smiley," declared Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen. The work of implementing the new adjustments will start immediately and is expected to take effect at the end of 2021 / start of 2022.
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