A RESTAURANT in Bolton has had to stop selling medium and rare burgers after receiving a one-star food hygiene score.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen opened in The Vaults in October and was given the rating by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in December.

The cleanliness and conditions were described as generally satisfactory.

But it received the low score because the restaurant prepared rare and medium burgers, but could not scientifically prove that the cooking method was safe. As a result, it has had to stop selling medium rare, medium and medium well done burgers.

A spokesman from Bolton Council said: “We inspect restaurants and food premises across Bolton under FSA guidelines and award them an appropriate rating. In December, we inspected the newly opened Gourmet Burger Kitchen.

“The Gourmet Burger Kitchen premises were clean and well maintained with all the appropriate equipment and facilities and they received a good score for this.

“However, under FSA guidelines, food businesses selling what the FSA class as less than thoroughly cooked burgers must show their supply chain and must scientifically prove that their cooking method is safe and GBK was not able to do this.

“They have agreed to stop selling medium/rare, medium and medium/well done burgers in the Bolton store and we understand that the FSA is discussing it with the company at a national level.”

Tim Molema, head of food at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, said food safety was of “paramount importance” to the restaurant chain.

He said: “All our restaurants are subject to rigorous quarterly, unannounced, external inspections as part of a routine auditing programme, as well as internal audits from senior management.

“This allows us to continually monitor standards across the board.

“After addressing the points raised in our Bolton restaurant we are now confident the high standards that we require from all of our restaurants are being met and we will be requesting a reassessment.”