A Congleton restaurant has been given a food hygiene rating of 1 after an inspection was carried out by a Food Safety officer.

The inspection found that Casa Piccola, 12c West Street, needed to make major improvements to the management of their food safety and further improvements to their hygienic food handling, the cleanliness and condition of the premises was deemed satisfactory.

The Food Safety inspection was carried out in February 2020.

Cheshire East Council operates the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, where 0 is 'Urgent Improvement Necessary' and 5 is 'Very Good'.

The food hygiene rating score was made up of three elements: confidence in management/control procedures, compliance with food hygiene and safety procedures and compliance with structural requirements.

At the time of the inspection it became clear to the officer that the staff had not done enough to show how they identify, control and monitor all steps/activities that are needed to make certain that food is safe.

Using the previous owners "Sam's" one-page hazard analysis system document alongside lapsed temperature and cleaning records since August 2019, coupled with the hygiene structure issues indicated that the restaurant had no cleaning system in place.

Whilst at the time of the inspection the actual storage temperatures of the refrigeration units were satisfactory, the refrigerator display panel of the store room fridge was broken and there were no air thermometers for the staff to be able to monitor the temperature of the refrigeration units.

Additionally, there was no probe thermometer available to use and the roof to the back food/drink storeroom was leaking water onto the storeroom floor.

The officer found that there were several cobwebs in the kitchen and back store near the flour bin, and the outside of the flour bin and lid was covered with flour.

The inspection found that the paint on the wooden shelf to the side of the pizza oven was flaking and there were obsolete items in the back lane to the bin area.

Despite the inspection taking place on 28th February, an officer found in the refrigerator two pork liver pâté packs with a use by date of 18/02.

The inspection found desserts made inhouse were not dated or adequately covered in the refrigerator. Two containers of tiramisu had been made on different days, which had both been used and it was unclear of the actual preparation date of the older tiramisu.

Staff explained to the officer that both containers had been used as the "manager took home the fresher one".

There was loose blue roll in use, but it was splattered with food and needed handling to pull off the disposable roll.

A "sticky" fly strip with dead flies was located directly above the central food preparation bench.

Whilst there was "Food Safe sanitiser" available to use, staff were not following the required 60 seconds contact time as required by the manufacturer's instructions.

The officer recommended that Casa Piccola contacted the services of a pest control contractor to help them eliminate fly issues.

The restaurant offers a selection of Italian food.

Nub News contacted Casa Piccola for a response, but we didn't receive a reply.