HUSH believe that consumers have been misled by promises that a new food hygiene ratings system will be fully up and running this year in Wales. Piloted in Swansea and Wrexham, Scores on the Doors was to be rolled out across the rest of the country at the end of September, but the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced that it will not base ratings on existing environmental health inspection reports and will make the data available on a gradual, inspection-by-inspection basis. This means that the full set of figures for higher risk premises will only become available to the public by the autumn of 2011 and it will be at least a further year before data is available on all food businesses.

HUSH member Sharon Mills, whose 5 year old son Mason died during the South Wales Outbreak of E.coli O157 in 2005, has accused the FSA of putting the interests of businesses before public safety. She believes this latest decision provides a get-out clause to failing restaurants, cafes, shops, pubs and takeaways, as does the decision not to make it mandatory for them to display their rating. She says: It was this soft-touch approach which allowed William Tudor to continue trading and which ultimately led to the 2005 outbreak which cost Mason his life.