A business left devastated following the award of a poor food hygiene rating has quickly turned things around and attained the highest rating.
Wimberley Hall Farm Shop and Café was given a rating of 1 in March following a routine inspection by South Holland District Council food health and safety officers.
The issues requiring “significant improvement” were resolved within three weeks and checked by the council but, under the terms of the scheme, the Weston business had to wait three months to be officially reassessed. And now it has just received a new rating of 5.
Assistant manager Fiona Bustance agreed that the episode should serve as a warning to other businesses, particularly with regards to paperwork which was Wimberley Hall’s downfall.
Following its March inspection, the district council told the business: “Good standards of general cleanliness and structure were found being maintained throughout both the café and the butchery/deli areas of the farm shop. Unfortunately, however, the implementation of written HACCP [Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point] procedures requires significant improvement.”
According to Mrs Bustance, the effect of the poor rating on the business, which has 12 part-time employees, quickly became apparent following publication of a report in The Voice.
“It had a noticeable effect,” she said. “Takings dropped through the floor and the morale of the staff suffered.
“We noticed that periods which were normally busy suddenly were not.
“We had regulars who still kept coming and said they couldn’t believe the rating because they knew how clean and nice the place was but it was obvious that other people were staying away.
“The thing is that people see a rating of 1 and assume the place to be dirty – I would think the same but in our case it was almost totally about paperwork.”
Mrs Bustance says she was unaware that she could appeal the council’s initial rating and may have done so but she thanked the authority for its officers’ help and guidance in the business quickly achieving the top rating.
The Food Standards Agency, which administers the ratings scheme, describes HACCP as “a system that helps food business operators look at how they handle food and introduces procedures to make sure the food produced is safe to eat”.
Mrs Bustance said: “Unless you have to do a HACCP folder you don’t realise just what’s involved, but I don’t want to make excuses.
“I have every confidence that our food and hygiene is of a high standard and through the officers’ help I’m confident that we will now maintain a high rating.”
Reasons for a rating being issued are not readily available to the public. However, copies of food hygiene rating reports can be obtained via a Freedom of Information request.
Mrs Bustance added: “I do think paperwork should be a separate rating. Had it said that was the issue in [The Voice] article, I don’t think the rating would have had such a detrimental effect on the business.”
The March rating was the first time the business had fallen below an acceptable score since it opened in 2013.
