FOOD watchdogs will be keeping an eye on Hampshire County Council after a probe criticised how the authority inspects restaurants, food stores and warehouses.

The inquiry, which will investigate a total of 18 local authorities around the country, follows a Food Standards Agency (FSA) survey into the environmental health departments at all of the UK's 600 councils.

The 18 selected for further scrutiny were found to have "unacceptably low levels of enforcement activity in key areas".

Faults included failing to target enough high-risk premises for inspection and a failure to sample potentially harmful foods.

The FSA said 14 of the 18 authorities, including Hampshire County Council, had already taken action to address the problems, although all have been warned that those who are not found to have improved their practices by the end of this year will be audited by the agency.

In a statement, the county authority said: "Hampshire County Council has responded positively to notification from the FSA that there was a shortfall in inspections of high-risk food premises.

"Local authorities assess food premises to decide if they are high risk, and Hampshire County Council has erred on the side of caution by adopting an approach that results in a higher proportion of high-risk premises than similar authorities.

The FSA aims to introduce a new procedure for determining food standards risks to ensure greater consistency between local authorities. We support this."