Thousands of cafés, pubs and takeaways will be freed from strict food safety controls under an EU initiative that risks a dramatic rise in food poisoning, The Times has learnt.

The European Union wants to exempt food outlets with fewer than ten staff from statutory rules covering food hygiene, including temperature checks on fridges and freezers and maintenance of proper records.

The plan, which is backed by the EU’s Industry Commissioner, has shocked food safety groups, which say that it will compromise public health.

A recent survey by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found that 60 per cent of food poisonings were linked to takeaway restaurants and other small food outlets. It also found that 94 per cent of establishments with fewer than ten staff were at “high risk” of not meeting hygiene standards.

A food-risk system was introduced in Britain after the 1996 E. coli outbreak in Lanarkshire, which caused 17 deaths. These controls were deemed necessary to prevent contamination and the growth of common food sickness bugs.

About 100,000 people a year report food poisoning, but the true rate is thought to be about one million.

At a meeting to discuss the proposal last month, most EU member states, including Britain, expressed support providing that the measure did not undermine public health. The plan could now be approved as early as the summer. The FSA has begun a consultation on the issue and MPs will demand this week that the proposal is debated fully in Parliament.

Experts fear that if the exemption is accepted, companies may cut staff numbers to dodge regulations. Official estimates suggest that about 500,000 companies would be spared the safety system known as HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) if the EU agreed the deregulation.Michael Connaty, chairman of the all-party Commons EU Scrutiny Committee, said: “The proposal has been drawn up related to the size of an enterprise and not down to the health risk to the community . . . Members on the committee made clear they did not want standards or record-keeping reduced on food premises.”

Professor Hugh Pennington, whose 1996 E. coli inquiry recommended HACCP controls in butchers’ shops, said that the proposal was “lunatic” and revealed that he was writing a formal submission to the agency on the matter.

“This would be a very retrograde step and I believe the benefits of relieving bureaucracy from small businesses would be small but the risks to the public would be significant,” he said.

“The balance has got to be to protect the public. It is a lunatic proposal that really has no merit at all. Introducing the controls has improved standards in businesses.”

Bob Cotton, head of the British Hospitality Industry, said: “The European Commission is trying to deregulate to help small business but we don’t understand the purpose of this legislation. A small backstreet burger bar can serve as many as 2,000 people in half a day. Do we want the possibility of poisoning 2,000 customers?”

Peter Ainsworth, Conservative spokesman on food, said: “We are massively over-regulated and it might be sensible to relieve more burdens from small businesses. We should trust businesses, provided there are no additional risks to human health.”

The spokesman for the European Health Commissioner said that food outlets would still have to comply with general hygiene rules. “We are condemned for imposing regulations and condemned if we wish to remove them.”

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