Fareham takeaway slammed as food inspector criticises staff

A Chinese takeaway has been slammed by food inspectors in a report which claims its staff's food hygiene awareness was '˜inadequate'.
The Golden Boat takeaway in West Street, FarehamThe Golden Boat takeaway in West Street, Fareham
The Golden Boat takeaway in West Street, Fareham

The Golden Boat in West Street, Fareham has been handed a one-star food hygiene rating following last month’s report.

While the cleanliness and condition of the restaurant was found to be satisfactory, an inspector raised serious questions about the way in which food was handled and the management of food safety.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Clare Blue, an inspector from Fareham Borough Council visited the premises on May 26.

She wrote: ‘It was apparent during my inspection that the level of food hygiene awareness amongst your staff was inadequate.

‘Tea towels were being used to cover food. Food should be should be covered with suitable clothing.

‘There was a large amount of unprotected unlabelled food stored within open carried bags in the chest freezers.’

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She added that there was evidence that flies had been found throughout the kitchen areas.

In her report, she wrote: ‘These pests carry food poisoning bacteria and can contaminate food and food surfaces that they land on.’

Ms Blue also wrote that there was risk of cross-contamination at the premises as the colours assigned to each chopping boards did not align up with a specific colour system for food dotted around the walls.

She added that there were broken glass light bulbs found behind the freezer, which could also contaminate food or equipment.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Another issue raised during the inspection was that there was an uncovered large trey containing cooked chicken left on the floor with another tray of rice left on top of it.

In addition to this, there was a large amount of unprotected and unlabelled food stored within open carrier bags in the chest freezers alongside tinned pineapple which was a year out of date.

However, Ms Blue did highlight improvements in the shop’s structure, saying: ‘Improvements have been made in respect of the cleaning.’

The Golden Boat’s manager, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘We have taken on board the comments from the inspector and now we are working to do better.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

‘We were told our standards were not up to standard so are working hard to fix that.

‘Improving our food hygiene has become a priority for us and we want our customers to know that we are doing all we can to improve the way we do things.

The manager said that the restaurant had been revisited recently since the inspection and that the inspector was pleased with what they saw.

He added: ‘I am very happy with the way things are going for us.’

Related topics: