Published: Wednesday, 25th June, 2008 12:00
Eateries told to clean up their act
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NINE eateries in Woodley and Earley have been served with scathing hygiene reports and rated bottom of the food safety tables.
All the restaurants and cafes say they have made changes and have now been passed by inspectors.
Asda’s staff cafe and the supermarket got two stars out of five, but its public cafe was ranked one of the bottom-rated zero star restaurants in an inspection earlier this year.
The investigating team from Wokingham Borough Council said it had “some major non-compliance with statutory obligations” and that more effort was required to prevent a further fall in standards.
Shopper Donna Benhan, 28, said she had eaten at the cafe before and had been disappointed: “It wasn’t satisfactory – hard eggs, the cutlery was filthy and the cup had a lipstick mark on it.”
Another 29-year-old shopper said: “It’s a bit of a shame. There’s a lot of people using it – I don’t think the rest of the supermarket is like the cafe.”
Asda contracts out the cafe to catering firm Eurest, and said it would take the matter up with them.
Eurest spokeswoman Janine Maher said: “We’ve rectified all the issues highlighted at Asda’s public restaurant and in the June re-inspection the council confirmed all the necessary requirements have now been met.”
Staff at zero-star rated Reading University Students’ Union (RUSU) venue, MoJo’s Bar, also said it had got to work on improving standards.
Inspectors in January said its management had a “poor appreciation of hazards and control measures and no food safety management system” and “generally low standards” of hygiene.
But student union spokeswoman Elaine McDonald said: “Following the inspection, RUSU has taken immediate action to improve the bar’s kitchen, management, safety and hygiene.”
She said she was confident a recent re-inspection would earn it an improved two-star rating.
The Maiden Over pub in Silverdale Road, Earley, got zero stars but has recently got a new landlord and lady who are refurbishing it to a higher standard, while The Mango takeaway in Coppice Road, Woodley, was inspected in January and had “almost total non-compliance with statutory (hygiene) obligations”.
But The Chronicle spoke to the manager of the zero-star rated Indian takeaway, Abul Hasan, who took over at the time of the inspection.
He said: “They came here in January and said we have to have food management and this and that, but they didn’t come back. When they visited last Wednesday they were happy that we had done what we needed to do but they haven’t given us a new rating yet. We are talking to them and they said that if they call again and everything is okay, we will get more stars.”
Council food safety chiefs were meeting yesterday (Wednesday) to discuss a new rating for The Mango, which is set to change hands soon, but is expected to remain an Indian takeaway.
More than 100 food businesses across the borough are so well-managed, or such low risks that they are not regularly inspected, while the worst-performing are re-checked every six months.
Environmental health manager Peter Haikin said: “Any business inspected which the environmental health team believes is causing an imminent risk to the public’s health is temporarily closed down until it proves it is no longer a risk.”
Link: www.wokingham.gov.uk/scores
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