‘Leaky boiler’ blamed for Middlesbrough cafe’s 1* hygiene score

Poppy’s, on Marton Road, says the reason for its recent 1* food hygiene rating is due to the structure of the shop, rather than its “food or cleanliness issues”.

Poppy’s was inspected on November 7, lastyear, and was slapped with a rating of one – which translates to “major improvement necessary”. Broken down into three categories, both “hygienic food handling” as well as “cleanliness and condition of facilities and building” were deemed to require improvement, while “major improvement” was deemed necessary when it came to the “management of food safety”.

The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) sets out how food hygiene ratings range from zero to five, with five being the top score. Poppy’s said a return inspection saw the “lady” inspector apparently “feeling sorry” for the team.

A cafe worker said: “We’re trying to get the place to be busier, but the first gentleman who came out said the premises aren’t big enough for how much custom we are doing.”

They added that the boiler is underneath the sink and is leaking, with a replacement being sought. “The current boiler we’ve got is leaking – we’ve had three of them, so they’re obviously not working,” they said. “So they are going to put it on the wall next to the sink, but it involves loads of pipework and stuff – it’s quite a big job so that’s happening in the next couple of weeks – and everything else that got commented on, we’ve already worked through.

“So as soon as the boiler is done, we are getting them back out for a re-visit because obviously one [rating] is not good and we don’t want it to reflect it being anything to do with the food, or the cleanliness because it wasn’t, it was just the structure of the shop.

“We’re a really busy café and we don’t want to lose custom through [the rating]. As I say it’s nothing to do with the food or anything like that, it’s just building work, basically.”