A TAKEAWAY given a hygiene rating of zero has failed to impress Bolton Council’s inspection team, who found dirty utensils, food on the floor and an unclean toilet — so raised it to a rating of just one.

Inspectors returned to the A Star Chippy in Lever Street in April and reported a host of failings.

The takeaway’s owners, who have been told that “major improvement” is still necessary, said the decision was “harsh” and have lodged an appeal.

The Bolton News has seen the full report from the food hygiene inspector, which points out a number of issues with food hygiene — including several raised at the previous inspection.

The report states: “A string sack of onions was stored in contact with the floor”.

It also notes that “a container of utensils such as whisks, spoons, grater etc was in a dirty condition and the container used to store them in was dirty.”

The report continues “chopping boards were stored in contact with spilt food and dirt” and “the same equipment, for example a burger flipper was being used for handling raw meat and cooked meat — this creates a risk of cross contamination”.

Other comments referred to “dirty scourer pads” and said “the WC pan and associated areas were very dirty”.

Owner Amjid Mirza said the takeaway was now “pristine” following the report and that he is waiting for the next inspection.

He added: “We don’t think we warranted a level one rating and appealed it, but were told that no-one would come out.”


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“Then the inspector did come back to check on us and said everything was fine.”

But Bolton Council has denied his version of events.

A spokesman said a follow-up inspection after the April visit “reported the same issues”.

When The Bolton News initially reported the A Star Chippy’s previous zero rating, Mr Mirza had placed the blame on the business’ previous owners and said he was confident of achieving a much better score in April’s inspection.

The previous owners strongly denied his claims.