A Wiltshire restaurant is hoping to reverse a new one-out-of-five food hygiene rating by the Food Standards Agency when its inspector pays a return visit.
The Lodge Restaurant at Henfords Marsh, in Warminster, was given a rating of one by the agency even though it has a four-star rating on TripAdvisor.
Food hygiene ratings, which are conducted by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), give businesses a score from five, meaning hygiene standards are very good, to zero, which means urgent improvement is required.
The poor score followed a visit by an inspector on Friday, August 23, the agency's website shows.
Following the visit, the agency ruled that major improvements were necessary for the management of food safety.
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Staff at The Lodge were told to put systems or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, and evidence that staff know about food safety.
The inspector said that if these major improvements are made, the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.
The inspector said improvements were necessary for the hygienic handling of food, including cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage.
But the Food Standards Agency was generally satisfied with the cleanliness and condition of The Lodge building.
They said: “Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building, including having appropriate layout, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene are generally satisfactory.”
Sandra Clift, 59, who runs The Lodge with her husband, Nicholas, 54, said: “The inspector gave us four weeks to put things right. We are due another visit any time now.
“The one-star rating was the manager that we had here previously who did not keep up with all the paperwork or anything.
“I got a new chef in, who was an old chef that came back to me, and he has done everything he can to rectify the situation.
“Health and hygiene have been good and they are due this week to make sure that everything has been done, and that the paperwork is correct.
“The chef has worked so hard to get this up and running again properly and we are proud of him. He has done such a good job and he has put such a lot of hours in.”
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