Local restaurant owner fined for failing the most basic food hygiene standards

Environmental Health Officers (EHO) have closed an Indian restaurant in Barrow upon Soar, near Loughborough, after a routine inspection revealed that the restaurant was operating with filthy conditions in the kitchen and in the storage areas.

During the visit in June 2009 they found a build up of dirt and food debris, indicating that basic everyday cleaning of the premises was not being carried out to the required standards.

As a result of the inspection, Charnwood Borough Council decided to prosecute the owner of the restaurant. The owner pleaded guilty to five food safety offences at Loughborough magistrates court in February 2010, these included:

• failing to keep a food premises clean and maintained in good condition,
• failing to keep equipment clean and in good order and repair,
• failing to protect food from contamination,
• failing to ensure the construction of a premises allowed protection against pests,
• failing to ensure staff were adequately trained.

The court heard that many of the practices at the restaurant exposed food to the risk of contamination. These poor practices included:

• storing food in an outside yard
• using dirty wiping cloths
• keeping decomposing food in one of the storage rooms

It was also reported that the food storage areas were in a poor state of repair and that they were inadequately protected from pests. Critical food controls were not in place at the time of the visit.

The poor conditions that were found at the time of the routine inspection visit of the premises by the EHOs forced the officers to serve legal notices and they ordered the owner to close the premises until all urgent matters had been dealt with.

The owner was prosecuted and was fined £1,000 and told to pay costs of £750.

The Head of Environmental Health for the council commented:

“We take a proactive approach to helping businesses in the borough comply with food safety provisions. However, where there are clear, significant breaches in the law, which can ultimately put the public at risk, we will take the necessary action.”