Powys hotel takes action after zero food hygiene rating

The Goat Hotel in Llanfair Caereinion has made a series of swift changes after inspectors found evidence of pests including “dead mice, faeces and gnawing”.

Owners of the hotel, Alyson and Richard Argument said in response to an enquiry from the County Times: “following the inspection, we initiated a brief closure of our kitchen to allow us time to address the items raised.

“We worked with a specialist to resolve the pest issue, completed a deep clean and refreshed our processes. We are proud to say that we have now reopened the kitchen, with a view to being reassessed in the near future.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response from the local community. We would like to send a heartfelt thank you to our staff, customers and fellow local businesses for their support during the closure and their warm welcome as we returned to normal service.”

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During their visit to the hotel inspectors found that “dead mice, mouse droppings and gnawed food were seen in the kitchen” and “mouse droppings were seen in the staircase area behind the bar leading down to the cellar.”

They also found “the floor covering in the vegetable storage area was dirty with mouse droppings, evidence of a dead mouse under the stairs, and food debris.”

The report also noted other cleanliness issues such as the pipework surrounding the top of the syrup/soft drinks mixer in the cellar which “appeared to be mouldy and the trunking for the pipework for the syrup/soft drinks lines in the cellar were dirty” and that the trunking of the beer lines pipework in the bar was in a greasy, dirty condition, as were the surfaces in contact and directly beneath them.”

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There was also a number of foodstuffs found in the kitchen that were out of date including cheese, ham, sour cream, vegetables and custard.

Inspectors were also critical of a lack of food hygiene training with the staff and a lack of food management and found that records of cleaning hadn’t been completed for nearly three months.

Inspectors added: “During the inspection there was no evidence to prove that anyone working within the kitchen had adequate food hygiene training, looking back over inspection reports- no training certificates for yourselves as food business operators and food handlers have been seen for years and the file dates back to 2009.

“This is over 15 years with no evidence of up-to-date food hygiene training commensurate with your food preparation and handling activities.”