A Chinese restaurant has been fined £11,500 after Environmental Health Officers (EHO) uncovered ‘disgraceful’ conditions and poor hygiene at the premises.
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council found a large build-up of food debris on the kitchen floor of the restaurant during a routine inspection in March.
Food equipment including sieves, knives and tongs was also dirty and containers were caked with dried food. Food was being stored in open cans, raw food was stored next to cooked produce and cooked seaweed had been left in a cardboard box used to store raw frozen chicken.
There was also a cross-contamination risk from the chopping block that had been used for both raw meat and cooked chicken.
The restaurant was advised of the hygiene offences, but in a follow-up visit the next day, EHOs found the interior of the ice machine was covered with black and pink growths and slime.
The owning company was prosecuted at Sevenoaks magistrates’ court on 17 August, when the company secretary and restaurant manager, admitted four food hygiene offences.
The bench chair told the company secretary: ‘We have seen some disgraceful photographs. For all the experience of catering in your family and your five years trading at this address, it is disappointing. We cannot allow your almost non-existent hygiene controls to continue.’
In addition to the fine the company was ordered to pay costs of £2,123 and a £15 victim surcharge.
The council’s member for environmental services said: ‘This business has been warned repeatedly for its poor standards and we are responsible for protecting consumers.’