Chingford Tesco hit with poor hygiene rating over handling of food

A Tesco in East London has scored a shocking one star after inspectors found that staff’s management of food safety needed “major improvement”. The jumbo-sized store on Larkshall road in Chingford, was given the low hygiene rating – the second lowest – in December 2021.

The Food Standards Agency uses the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme to rank food businesses from zero to five – with zero indicating that urgent improvement is required, while five means that hygiene standards are very good. The grocery store was handed one out of five which indicates that a major improvement is necessary.

READ MORE : Chingford Iceland slammed with poor hygiene rating but manager says ‘we have 2 cleaners’

A Tesco spokesperson has called it an “isolated issue”

The supermarket’s hygienic handling of food, including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage were all found to need urgent improvement.

The report also said that systems or checks in place to ensure that food sold is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and that the food safety officer had confidence that standards will be maintained in the future – all needed major improvement. Waltham Forest Council food safety officers inspected the premises on December 20 – just five days before Christmas – to rate the store and its staff on food hygiene practices.

The megastore, based in the Highams Park area of Chingford, is open seven days a week and is home to a wide range of groceries, household goods and clothing. Its popularity amongst locals soared when the store offered exclusive shopping hours to parents with young children during the lockdown in 2020.

For a few hours a week, residents were encouraged to turn out for a socially-distanced shop with their little ones in tow. A Tesco spokesperson offered an apology to its customers for the poor rating, insisting that the damning report came soon after an “isolated issue”, and that Tesco had acted quickly to resolve the matter.

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They said: “This was an isolated issue which we immediately acted to resolve, including providing refresher training for our colleagues, and we’re really sorry for any inconvenience caused to our customers.

“We take hygiene extremely seriously and we have robust processes for cleaning and food safety in our stores.”

The branch’s cleanliness and condition of facilities in the building were said to be satisfactory. This key category looked at the layout of the store, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control.

Though the FSA encourages customers to check ‘scores on the doors’ before patronising businesses, it also warns that “ratings are a snapshot of the standards of food hygiene found at the time of inspection”.

Their website added: “It is the responsibility of the business to comply with food hygiene law at all times. The food hygiene rating scheme does not provide information on the quality of the food, customer service, culinary skill, presentation and comfort.”

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https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/chingford-tesco-hit-poor-hygiene-23163975

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