Village pub defends drop in hygiene rating from 5 stars to 1

Inspectors from North Kesteven Council visited the Horse & Jockey in Waddington last month (August) and gave the pub a one-star food hygiene rating.

Licensee Dave Densham put the lower rating down to a change in management and vowed the pub would have five stars by the end of the month.

Kitchen continuity 

He said: “I had two new Italian chefs who had just started, and the management company, which runs the building had also just changed when we were visited.

“The officer said the rating was because we haven’t got continuity in the kitchen because the management company changed.

“She wants to see eight weeks’ worth of records to ensure the place is running properly. When she comes back in eight weeks to reinspect, we will be back to a five, I am confident of that.”

He added that he would welcome anyone who wanted to have a look in the pub’s kitchen to see what the standards were like.

Improvement necessary

The pub’s hygienic food handling, which included preparation, cooking, reheating, cooling and storage was deemed to have ‘improvement necessary’.

This was also the case for the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building including having an appropriate layout, ventilation, hand-washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene.

However, there was ‘major improvement necessary’ for the pub’s management of food safety, which includes system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat.

It also requires evidence that staff know about the food safety and that the food safety officer has confidence standards will be maintained in future.