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One-star hygiene rating for Sea View Yacht Club: What went wrong?

Warm scallops, flies in the kitchen and a ‘poor’ standard of hygiene are among the reasons an Isle of Wight yacht club has been slammed with a lowly one-star food hygiene rating.

Major improvement is necessary for the Sea View Yacht Club, on Seaview’s Esplanade, the Isle of Wight council has determined after environmental health officers inspected its kitchen in August.

Yacht club to seek a reinspection
The outcome has recently been published by the council and the report highlights food safety and standards which need improving.

James Crofts, Sea View Yacht Club secretary, said they accepted the issues inspectors found and have sought to remedy them, also confirming the yacht club will be seeking a reinspection.

Some of the breaches
At the time of the inspection, officers saw a ‘large number’ of flies in the kitchen as well as scallops being stored on the work surface.

Staff told inspectors the scallops should have been stored in the fridge and expected them to be below 8°C, but those on the side were reading at 13.7°C.

The scallops, which are deemed a high-risk food, were disposed of during the inspection.

Poor standard of hygiene in some areas
The general standard of hygiene was poor in some areas, the inspectors said, with mouldy seals on fridges and freezers, cobwebs above the pizza oven and the oven was dirty with old food debris. The top of the vacuum packer was also dirty.

One oven was seen leaking water onto the floor.

Food past its use-by date
Food was found by inspectors to be past its use-by date and some items stored in the freezers, like lobster, were not labelled at all.

Bacon, Applewood cheese, vegan mayonnaise and blended avocado were all found to be two days past their use-by date.

Salami, Corrisham, Gallybagger, Parmesan and vegetable sausages were all also one day out of date.

Poor practices
Some sauces and condiments which required refrigeration after being opened were being stored at an ambient temperature.

Some food in the fridges was uncovered which inspectors said presented a contamination risk.

Plaster was crumbling from walls between the servery and main preparation area and paint was flaking from the ceiling near an oven, which also posed a contamination risk.

Officers also saw there was no wash hand basin in the pizza and BBQ food service area.

Allergen information
Allergen information for certain dishes had not been fully completed for all menus in use.


This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed