The prestigious George Hotel in Yarmouth has once again failed to meet satisfactory food hygiene standards.
The hotel, which in 2015 hosted a pre-wedding dinner for family and friends of actor Benedict Cumberbatch, was inspected in February this year and given a rating of 1.
Prior to this the Hotel’s has twice being given a 0 rating in the last three years.
Catalogue of failures
The inspection reports reveals extremely concerning food safety hygiene breaches, some of which the hotel had already been cautioned about in the past.
- For example, despite being informed by staff that a system of stock rotation and control was in place, the inspector found black puddings in the fridge that were nearly two weeks past their ‘use by’ date (13 days), as well as a container of Anchovies three days past its ‘use by’ date.
- Irregular temperature monitoring of the two fridges at the front of house might give rise to conditions that would encourage the growth of food spoilage bacteria, moulds and food poisoning bacteria.
- The inspector found fish being stored on one of the shelves above bread in the walk in chiller, adding that this may lead to contamination of the ready-to-eat foods with food poisoning bacteria.
- The chopping boards for raw meat had deteriorated to the extent that they can no longer be effectively cleaned. The board for uncooked fish, although it had been cleaned, was dirty with old food debris in the grooves of the board.
- Eggs were not being stored in the fridge. This is important because eggs may contain low levels of Salmonella bacteria and storing at warm ambient temperatures may allow the bacteria to multiply, and if subsequent cooking is insufficient, sufficient bacteria may survive and cause food poisoning.
Inspector: “Major improvement necessary”
Following the inspection, environmental health officers declared:
- Major improvement is necessary for management of food safety
- Improvement is necessary for hygienic food handling
- They found the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building ‘good’
History of failures
Since the hotel was bought by former Camelot Group Chief Executive, Dianne Thompson, and following the departure of Michelin starred chef, Robert Thompson (no relation), there have been a catalogue of low hygiene ratings.
In November 2015, the hotel was given a rating of 0.
This was followed by another rating of 0 from an inspection in July 2017.
Response from hotel
OnTheWight contacted The George to ask how it could repeatedly fail to reach food hygiene standards expected by the public.
At time of publishing they had failed to provide a response.
