In the days following the announcement of Veri-Good, consumers will see the factors we consider vital to Veri-Good Standards – and these most definitely include safeguarding, including health & safety.

In the hospitality sector, food safety is obviously critical, and we will be publishing details of businesses meeting high standards – backed by verified, expert evaluations.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency provides information gathered by visits to businesses by food hygiene inspectors and only businesses that have passed inspections will be featured on Veri-Good. To begin with, we will feature hospitality businesses in England, Northern Ireland and Wales that have 4 & 5 star ratings, and in Scotland, those that have received the ‘Eat Safe’ Award.

An important difference

Veri-Good means verified good standards. Businesses won’t be able to get on the Veri-Good platform unless they are committed to, and can prove they meet  and maintain the set standards.

On other platforms, such as TripAdvisor and Online Travel Agents like Booking.com, checks are not made on whether featured businesses are meeting these vital standards. In fact, investigations show that businesses with some severe food hygiene risks can often score high in online reviews ratings.

Actions taken and improvements

The founders of Veri-Good have previously tackled the problem of businesses with poor food hygiene featuring prominently on online platforms. After an investigation into food hygiene standards on the Just Eat food delivery platform carried out by KwikChex in 2018, KwikChex CEO Chris Emmins worked with BBC News to highlight the problem and Chris appeared on the programme that revealed a substantial number of businesses had not met the required standards. The exposure persuaded Just Eat to remove businesses in the UK that were failing inspections and to publish the food standards ratings of all businesses Just Eat were selling delivery services on behalf of.

We hope that the proactive stance taken by Veri-Good will also persuade reviews sites and online travel agents to make the sort of improvements Just Eat has been undertaking.

Click here to read about the Just Eat story on the KwikChex site