A rancid and mouldy cucumber, decaying beetles and dead flies are all problems which led an inspector to dish out a zero rating to an Isle of Wight café.
‘Urgent improvement’ is necessary at the Hungry Caterpillar cafe at Butterfly World, following inspections in August by the Isle of Wight Council.
The authority recently published the environmental health officers’ findings, which resulted in the voluntary disposal of some food.
The general standard of hygiene was poor, inspectors said, and various areas required a deep clean.
The findings included:
- Dead flies and ‘large beetles decaying’ above the shelves overhanging the griddle and deep fat fryer, and on the shelves above the food preparation area in the kitchen;
- Cobwebs above cooking equipment;
- Dirty floors in the kitchen, server and storeroom, especially in the corners and under equipment;
- Dirty utensils cupboards – one with spiders and cobwebs inside;
- Dirty kitchen and server area worktops;
- The display fridge had old food debris on all shelves, in the ventilation ducts and stagnant water with decaying food in the glass door sliders;
- Dirty equipment including the hot drinks machine; upright ice cream freezer; deep fat fryers; griddle; hot holding unit;
- Walls and tiles; the floor mat in the server; hand contact surfaces were dirty;
- The Insect unit was full of dead insects and cobwebs;
- The wash hand basins waste pipe was black from a water leak.
During the inspection, officers found food past its use-by date including boiled eggs, corned beef sandwiches, a rancid and mouldy cucumber, a tomato in a sealed bag which was rancid with water around it, and other mouldy items. They were all voluntarily disposed of during the visit.
Food was being re-heated to 63ºC, when it should have been 75ºC, to ensure food poisoning bacteria had been effectively destroyed.
The temperature probe used to monitor the food was not being sanitised before or after each measurement, leading to a risk of cross-contamination of food, said the report.
Daily temperature checks of fridges and freezers, hot holding and food had not been made and in the chill display, high-risk foods including corned beef sandwiches were being stored at 9.9ºC, when the temperature should not have gone above 8ºC.
Although a revisit by inspectors confirmed there was a fault with the unit, they said daily checks would have picked up the failure earlier.
Sandwiches — which had no allergy labels — were voluntarily disposed of.
In the food service area, there were no materials for cleaning hands at the basin.
Paint was flaking off the microwaves and areas of sealant between the wall and the worktops in the kitchen, and around the basin, had ‘perished’.
The Hungry Caterpillar has been contacted for comment.
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