"It's just frustrating because we've worked so hard to make it a success"

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A Bath deli has vowed to bounce back after it scored one out of five in a recent food hygiene inspection.

The Chelsea Road Deli was rated "major improvement necessary" with regard to its management of food safety. This lowered the venue's overall rating, despite its "good" scores for hygienic food handling, and cleanliness of facilities.

Owner Giuseppe took over the café in lockdown and said he was "devastated" by the results of his first inspection. It was all to do with some missing paperwork, he explained.

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"I am quite young and I didn't realise there was some paperwork we should have. They obviously don't let you know when they are coming and I didn't know what to expect.

"We took over during lockdown and it was a tough time. It's frustrating to get this score because we've worked so hard to make it a success. It's just devastating really.

"We know what we are doing and they actually said that we were one of the cleanest kitchens they have seen. Hopefully, we will be getting a re-score soon and it will be higher.

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Food hygiene scores follow a scale set by Food Standards Agency to show customers how hygienic their local eateries are. Businesses get a rating from five to zero which is displayed on their premises and online so you can make more informed choices about where to buy and eat your food. Here is what each number on the scale means:

All cafes, restaurants, takeaways, and other places preparing food, are inspected in three areas of hygiene, the results of which make up their final rating. The first is "hygienic handling". This concerns the preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage of food.

Each business is also marked on the "cleanliness and condition of [its] facilities and building". This includes having an appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control.

"Management of food safety" is the third inspection category and requires businesses to have a system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat. They must also be able to show evidence that their staff know about food safety so that the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.

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