The full details of why Ventnor Winter Gardens received a zero food hygiene rating have been revealed, including mouldy fridges, out of date food and general poor cleanliness.
As previously reported by Island Echo, Ventnor Winter Gardens was recently slapped with the worst possible food hygiene rating by the Isle of Wight Council. It has now emerged that an inspection was prompted by allegations a customer was ‘feeling unwell’ after eating there.
Environmental Health inspectors paid a visit to the establishment in October and found numerous problems including 3 areas that had to be dealt with immediately. The situation was so bad that an improvement notice was issued as inspectors had reasonable grounds to believe Ventnor Winter Gardens was ‘failing to comply’ with regulations because there was no documentation to demonstrate the effective application of a food safety management system.
In their report, inspectors said they had received an allegation of a customer feeling ‘unwell’ after eating fish and chips there. They said while there was no direct evidence to suggest this was the cause of the customer illness, from observations at the time it was possible the quality of the food was impacted by the age and condition of the oil and cleanliness of the deep fat fryer.
The overall cleanliness, inspectors said, was poor and unclean in a number of areas finding a build-up of food debris, grease and dirt. In one of the service refrigerators, there was evidence of mould growth. It was also found that a section of wall directly above the cooking wall was damaged, in very poor condition, unclean and not of suitable construction.
While there was a system of stock rotation and control, it was not being implemented as inspectors found 11 high-risk items with a past use-by date — including cooked sausages, pastrami and eggs and a number of lower-risk items in the dry goods store. They were, at the time, voluntarily disposed of.
Inspectors saw a risk of contamination, in one instance ciabatta breads were thawed on top of the chest freezer, which was visibly unclean.
There was also irregular monitoring of chilled high-risk foods with 2 days worth of checks not recorded and in the bar area, none at all. Inspectors also found in the bar area milk and other dairy products were being stored at 10.5ºc when it should be at or below 8ºc.
Referring back to Ventnor Winter Garden’s previous inspection in February 2020, when the venue got a score of 1 out of a possible 5, inspectors said they were disappointed to find ‘a number of the same areas unclean’.
Misleading menu items were also found, with food products marked from the Isle of Wight when it was unclear if that was the case. Its ‘Isle of Wight Traditional Breakfast’ seemingly only had tomatoes definitely linked to the Island, with no evidence to suggest the other items were from the Island.
Ventnor Winter Gardens has admitted the point about the breakfast, which has since been renamed. The business has also said that staff have been retrained and essential kitchen maintenance and redecoration had been carried out. A new food safety management system has been put in place with the support and assistance of the Council, and the business has complied with the notice served.
A spokesperson said:
“The Winter Gardens was re-inspected 14 days after this report and given the indication of a much higher score once the final piece of maintenance has been completed and on re-inspection in the new year.”
Seems that many of the eating establishments on the Island are very silly.
Now more than ever, with many afraid to go out and eat, there is NO excuse for poor hygeine and they are fools to themselves to flout rules, for many even once they gain a higher rating, will rightly doubt whether, when the risk of inspectors have subsided, the new standard will be maintained.
Also, we see ad’s on the Ferry and in Magazines etc stating ‘A warm welcome awaits you’ etc etc in Island eating establishment, yet all too often, anything but is encountered.
Many such places likely will collapse now due to less risking eating out, with some deserviing such
I had a prawn cocktail in there once,
Nothing happened to me.
I think that the poor chap was just unlucky or had a jibby tummy before he went in there.
That place has always been dodgy, should have been bulldozed years ago.
I can see a nice block of flats, going up there soon.
Not been myself so cannot really comment. I hope they implement what needs to be done to stay open, people reading the inspection report will need reassurance from them. it’s only basic food hygiene you would use at home! Sort it out it looks an amazing building by the way, may pay a visit in spring
Looks like the downstairs windows are nice and clean though. Perhaps the window cleaner should clean the fridges and kitchens too.