A restaurant has achieved three stars in a food safety and hygiene inspection after receiving a zero out of five rating last year.
Bella Emilio’s in Friargate, Preston failed to gain any score when visited by inspectors on October 23, 2012 and its owners were told urgent improvement was necessary.
But the management at the Italian restaurant said this was down to a leaky roof, which had now been fixed.
And on February 28, Preston Council scored the premises three out of five - a ‘generally satisfactory’ rating.
The restaurant’s manager Craig Richardson, said the zero rating was a blip, which had been quickly resolved.
He said: “Bella Emilio’s has been a family-run business for more than 30 years, so we want to restore the public’s confidence.
“The problem was the roof, which leaked into the pot wash area. Our builders came out and got that sorted. The bad weather had caused it.
“I spoke to Environmental Health and they explained there were a few other little issues, like paperwork which wasn’t up to date.
“We’ve made a step in the right direction. The team came back and said we nearly got a four, so hopefully next time we will get a four or five.”
The inspections, carried out by the council’s Environmental Health team on behalf of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), give a grade out of five.
They are based on three things - food preparation and storage, the state of the building the food is prepared in, and how those processes are managed by bosses.
Simon Neighbour, Environmental Health manager at Preston Council, said: “We undertook a visit and found several areas that needed attention, and the food business operator volunteered to close immediately to undertake remedial action. We accepted this, and found the premises to be much improved at the time of the revisit.
“The proprietor has co-operated enthusiastically and except for some minor issues would have earned a rating of four at the time of the revisit.
“It is unusual for a business to increase so markedly from a zero to a three rating in such a short period of time, and in this case the business missed a rating of four by a narrow margin.
“We are pleased with the way the business has put in place procedures aimed at achieving and then maintaining high levels of food safety.”
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