The Waltham Tandoori defends its low hygiene rating

The Waltham Tandoori received a one-out-of-five score on June 25 in an assessment by Winchester City Council for the Food Standards Agency.

The report said that "major improvement is necessary" at the Indian restaurant, especially in its management of food safety and hygienic food handling.

Now the owners have released a statement claiming that the poor rating was due to a language barrier between council staff and restaurant workers.

READ MORE: Hampshire restaurant rated one out of five for food hygiene

The Waltham Tandoori (Image: Google)

The statement says: "At the time of the inspection, which was outside normal operating hours, there was no management staff present, only leaving the kitchen staff, who, because of the language barrier, could not answer or understand the many questions they were being asked, [which] led to a void in the report and a misrepresentation."

Because of the lack of understanding between the two parties, the owners claim, the staff did not produce the documentation detailing the restaurant's food hygiene protocol.

Allegedly, this led to the inspector's decision to award one mark out of five for food safety.

The Waltham Tandoori has since had another food hygiene inspection and has issued a new "management hygiene document".

The owners' full statement is as follows: "We were aware, prior to the inspection by the Environmental Health Officer, that there were various issues which we were in the process of remedying. If the management had been present at the time of the Environmental Health Inspection, they would have been provided with the documentation which included our relevant training methods and procedures which were in place and [which] ensure the consistency in preparation and hygiene and allow for all facilities to be clean and food safe to serve.

"At the time of the inspection, which was outside normal operating hours, there was no management staff present, only leaving the kitchen staff, who, because of the language barrier, could not answer or understand the many questions they were being asked, [which] led to a void in the report and a misrepresentation.

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"We were shocked to find out that it was the food safety which resulted in the negative report even though it was available to be produced if the management had been present.

"We take our cleanliness and preparation of food very seriously and our staff are trained to maintain a safe system which includes checks to ensure that it complies with the Food Safety Agency recommendations in the implementation and maintenance of food safety.

"We have now had a further visit over a week ago from the Environmental Health Officer who was satisfied that we had resolved the majority of the issues and have put in place an up-to-date New Management hygiene document and we have now applied for the premises’ rating to be reinstated."