REHIS News

The Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN) has issued new guidance, replacing the 2013 Guidance for the Public Health Management of Infection with Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli, which is designed to support the development of those arrangements and assist in response to E. coli cases by health protection teams, environmental health departments and other stakeholders. It is also part of a suite of materials that has been produced in parallel with, and it should be used alongside, the ‘Scottish STEC Enhanced Surveillance Form’.

Fast food adverts could be banned from council-owned sites in the Capital as part of an effort to tackle obesity.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Kevin Lang has tabled a motion at a full council meeting, calling for an investigation into “the legal powers available to ban fast food advertising on sites owned by the council, including bus and tram stops”.

A discount store in the north of Glasgow has been refused an alcohol licence following concerns that drinking in the local area was double the Scottish average.

Home Bargains in Springburn had applied to Glasgow City Council's licensing board to sell wines, beers and spirits.

However, the bid was rejected by Glasgow City Council's licensing board after it was pointed out that alcohol-related harm in the area was more than double the national average.

Twenty-one out of 55 bottles of vintage Scotch whiskies tested at a specialist laboratory have been found to be fake.

The energy content of a large number of main meals in major UK restaurants is “excessive” and the full service restaurant meals tend to be higher in energy content than fast food meals, research published in the BMJ has found. 

University of Liverpool researchers analysed thousands of meals from places like Nando’s and McDonald's. The researchers examined at more than 13,500 meals on the menus of 21 full service restaurants and six fast-food chains. 

Sniffer dogs are being used to help find leaking water mains for the first time in Scotland and have scored a big success with two discoveries.

Scottish Water have deployed a team of specially trained dogs to help locate leaks in pipes in rural areas where the water does not always show on the surface.

Two spaniels, called Snipe and Denzel, aged two and three, have been trained by ex-military dog handlers to detect the smell of chlorine in treated water.

Food delivery platform, Just Eat has announced plans to display the official Food Hygiene Rating of each of its UK restaurant partners directly on its platform both in-app and online.

Following consultations with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), Just Eat will launch its trial of the initiative in Northern Ireland in early 2019 with over 600 restaurants. Following a full evaluation of the trial, a national roll-out will be implemented later in the year.

The BBC Watchdog Live has found that leading restaurant and coffee shop chains are giving out incorrect allergy advice.

Acting as customers with food allergies, Watchdog Live's journalists covertly filmed staff at Frankie & Benny's, Pizza Hut, Nandos, Pizza Express, Starbucks and Costa. The journalists asked staff if specific dishes contained one of the 14 major allergens, including nuts, mustard and celery - which is often used as flavouring in stocks and sauces.

A woman has been convicted of illegally whitening people's teeth.

Brenda McFadyen, from Clydebank, was fined £1,000 after she pled guilty to the illegal practice of dentistry at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month.

The Dentists Act 1984 makes it illegal for anyone who is not registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) to practise dentistry. The GDC, which regulates the UK dental industry, allows only registered dentists to carry out teeth whitening.