BOLTON Council has been awarded £10,000 to support new food hygiene schemes in the town.

It was one of 10 local authorities which earned the right to get cash help from the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The awards have been made after the FSA invited authorities to come up with ideas of how to get key food hygiene messages across to their communities.

Successful schemes aim to improve hygiene education within schools where the awarded money will be used to produce teaching packs, CDs, videos and hygiene testing kits.

The schemes also focus on improving training and support for caterers on food hygiene issues.

The cash awards are part of the Agency's Food Hygiene Campaign which was launched in February 2002 to reduce food-borne illness by 20 per cent by 2006.

After receiving 70 applications for the grants, a panel assessed the schemes against criteria which included innovation, partnership, excellence and evaluation arrangements.