A Lidl bit of food safety work needed
BOSSES SAY URGENT ACTION TAKEN AFTER DISCOUNT STORE GIVEN ONE-STAR RATING
A LIDL store has been told it must improve its food safety standards after being given a one-star hygiene rating.
The budget-busting supermarket in Westhoughton, Bolton, was deemed to require major changes after being inspected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in June this year.
Lidl say they ‘take food hygiene extremely seriously’ and ‘that corrective action was immediately taken’ following the poor rating.
Each FSA inspection has three measures in total - hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities and building, and management of food safety.
The Lidl store, on Fairways, was given an overall rating of one out of five, with ‘major improvements’ required in the management of food safety.
According to the FSA website, this relates to the checks in place to make sure food sold is safe to eat and that there is evidence staff know about food safety. It also assesses whether the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future. In other measures the store was rated as ‘generally satisfactory’ - for hygienic food handling and the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building. The three other Lidl stores in Bolton have an overall food hygiene rating of five - the highest level. The full inspection report for the Westhoughton store is not available on the FSA website and can only be published by Bolton Council. The M.E.N has requested to see the full report. The inspection was carried out on June 27. A Lidl spokesman said: “We can reassure customers that we take food hygiene extremely seriously and were, therefore, very disappointed with this score, which is not representative of the high standards we demand across the business. “We can confirm that corrective action was immediately taken, which we are confident will result in a higher rating. “We look forward to welcoming the local authority back to the store at their earliest possible convenience.” Lidl spokesman