The Seagull in Portchester, which is part of Greene King’s Hungry Horse brand, was visited by inspectors from Fareham Borough Council on 4 January this year.
According to the Food Standards Agency website, the pub’s hygienic food handling, including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage was deemed “generally satisfactory”.
Urgent improvement needed
However, the cleanliness and condition of the pub’s facilities and building, including having appropriate layout, ventilation, hand-washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene needed urgent improvement.
The pub’s management of food safety, including system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served was safe to eat along with evidence that staff knew about food safety needed major improvement.
A spokesperson for the Seagull put the low rating down to building work at the site and said all of the pub’s staff had undergone refresher training.
Under investigation
The spokesperson said: “We fully recognise the standards expected of the pub were not adhered to when environmental health officers visited earlier this month (January) due to some external building repairs, therefore, we voluntarily closed the pub to conduct a thorough clean and external repairs.
“We have since conducted refresher training for all team members and undertaken a complete overhaul of hygiene procedures. We are continuing to work hard to ensure we meet the high standards expected of the business.”
A spokesperson for Fareham Borough Council confirmed there was still an ongoing investigation and no further information was available at present.
The spokesperson said: “This matter is still under investigation. As yet we don’t know what the outcome of this work is going to be and, therefore, we are not able to release any further information at this time.”