The recent round of food hygiene assessments at local businesses has left a couple waiting for urgent reviews so they can demonstrate that improvements have already been made.
Country Butchers and The Rockmount were both assessed earlier this month, and both received one-star out of five.
Country Butchers was told that “improvements are necessary” across the board with regards to ‘hygienic food handling’ and the ‘cleanliness and condition of facilities and building’. It was also told that its ‘management of food safety’ was marked as “major improvements necessary”.
The Rockmount was told that it was “generally satisfactory” in terms of its ‘hygienic food handling’ and it was rated “good” for the ‘cleanliness and condition of facilities and building’.
It was however told “major improvement necessary” in its ‘management of food safety’.
Both businesses sought to explain why when approached by Express.
Country Butchers said its assessment was impacted by recent staff shortages.
Two new employees have recently been taken on and a spokesperson said they would welcome a reassessment as soon as possible.
A spokesperson for Randalls, which owns The Rockmount said its one-star rating was down to an administration error, and they would also welcome a reassessment as soon as possible.
“We want to reassure customers that the recent hygiene rating for The Rockmount is mainly through an administration error and not a reflection of poor practices. We have asked for an urgent reassessment and are confident the inspector will be satisfied with what they find.
“The legislation states that paperwork in relation to food hygiene is kept on site. On this occasion, the paperwork was being reviewed offsite by our head chef to ensure the standards we insist on were being adhered to. It was simply unfortunate timing that the inspection coincided with this and we have reviewed our procedures accordingly as a result. We thank the Office of Environmental Health for agreeing to return at its earliest convenience.
“There is no cause for concern for our customers and we look forward to welcoming them to The Rockmount, especially now the longer evenings and warmer weather have arrived.”
The hygiene ratings are allocated by the Officer for Environment Health and Pollution Regulation.
Members of staff assess premises and issue them with a rating between one and five stars.
A spokesperson said that record keeping is an important part of the process.
“Businesses need to ensure that they are suitably staffed to maintain basic hygiene standards. The level of record keeping required by a business depends on the scale of the business and the level of risk associated with their practices. For smaller scale businesses or those that are lower risk, the record-keeping requirements should take a short matter of minutes. For those with more complex or higher risk practices, it may take slightly longer but record keeping does not need to be onerous. Some businesses use tick sheets and charts so that they can record their checks quickly and easily.
“It is a requirement to record temperatures accurately. If someone can record a temperature to a decimal place this could be useful in assessing trends and fluctuations in temperature, but this is not a requirement, and someone would not be ‘marked down’ on this basis.
“Inspections are typically carried out unannounced as it is important to see how a business operates under normal working conditions. If visits are prearranged, then it is possible that the business will not show how they would normally operate, and this may not be a representative inspection. Inspectors are aware of when there are more difficult times for inspections, such as at different times of the day and seasonally, and this is taken into consideration. There are times when there are specific access requirements (e.g. secure areas) where it may be necessary to arrange a visit but this is not common place.”