Truth about city’s cleanest eateries - and its dirtiest

1:20pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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By Jack Blanchard »

MORE than a dozen Worcester food outlets have joined an elite group of city eateries with near-perfect standards of food hygiene.

But the latest round of food safety inspections by Worcester City Council's environmental health team has brought grim news for the bakery chain Three Cooks, with its branch on the Shambles being given the worst possible rating for safety and hygiene.

The council began publishing the results of food safety inspections online in January, when your Worcester News revealed that almost one in four of the city food outlets inspected over the previous six months had not met minimum hygiene standards and that only eight had received the perfect' five star award for food safety.

However, in the past two months top marks having been handed out to a further 14 food outlets - including several well-known city centre bars, pubs and restaurants.

Regular customers of the Pitcher & Piano on St Nicholas Street, the King's Head on Sidbury, the Anchor Inn in Diglis, the Mayflower in Dines Green and the Ludlows@ Diva cafe on Copenhagen Street can all now rest assured that the highest possible hygiene standards are being adhered to.

The city's other five star' recipients since January are the Housewives' Choice greengrocer on Church Street, Mencap in St John's, Stanley Road Primary School, the guest house at 26 Ombersley Road, the Victoria House Day Nursery in St John's, M&R Convenience Stores on The Tything, The Cottage Nursery at St Mary's School in Battenhall, Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue's headquarters on Charles Hastings Way and the Wyatt Guest House on Barbourne Road.

"Five star awards show that these premises are the elite in terms of food hygiene," said the council's environmental health manager Martin Gillies.

"Their customers can have a great deal of confidence in the practices operated there."

But the same cannot be said of the Shambles' branch of Three Cooks, with Mr Gilles' team reporting that hygiene standards were "generally low" and they had "little confidence in management" after an unannounced visit earlier this year.

The bakery received zero stars, signifying "almost total non-compliance with statutory obligations". A spokesman for the bakery declined to comment.