'Scores on doors' no closer for Canberra restaurants

A spokeswoman said ACT Health was continuing to explore "several" food safety operational enhancements to improve food hygiene standards and regulatory transparency in Canberra.

"These include the possible introduction of a food hygiene grading system," she said.

"If a decision is made to pursue such a system, ACT Health will work closely with industry and the community to ensure the proposed system achieves its desired outcomes."

Labor and the Greens threw their support behind a "scores on doors" system in Canberra before the 2012 election in response to concerns about the secrecy surrounding food safety breaches.

The Canberra Times reported in 2011 that, while inspectors had found dozens of eateries were too unclean to sell food, ACT laws prevented those businesses from being publicly identified.

Although ACT Health does publish a list of restaurants found guilty of breaching food safety standards, it can take between 18 and 24 months between the date of an offence and a conviction appearing on the register.

The information is usually published on the register for two years.

The ACT Health spokeswoman said the list was a register of offences that had been proven in court and was not a register of all breaches detected by health inspectors.

Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said although the management of food safety in the ACT had not been good, he was concerned by the "scores on doors" proposal.

"I think it would lead to potentially misleading information unless it was constantly monitored and it's clear the government hasn't got the capacity to do that. They're not even doing the job they're supposed to be doing now," he said.

"I think we've got to be very careful that we're not adding an extra layer of regulation that doesn't make restaurants safer.

"It's another level of bureaucracy and regulation that would, for many restaurants, be punitive and unnecessary."