City centre takeaway the latest to be hit with a poor hygiene rating

El Mexicana has been give a one star food hygiene rating, the second lowest, by Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) inspectors following an inspection on January 27.

A report into the takeaway, in The Cross, reveals that "major improvement' was necessary in the management of food safety - the category which looks at the system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.

Inspectors also judged that improvement was necessary in the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building standards - the category that ensures there is appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene.

In the third key category - hygienic food handling which considers how food is prepared, cooked and re-heated, as well as cooling and storage - standards were judged to be generally satisfactory.

An El Mexicana spokesman said: "We are dismayed and appalled by this one-off.

"We take food hygiene very seriously - there was very unhappy accident of a fridge breaking down on the day of the inspection that hadn't been spotted.

"The condition of the building - we planned to refit it and then Covid came along. We will go ahead with the refit next month.

"We have rebooked a reinspection, we are confident we will get 5 stars."

In receiving the rating, the takeaway joins the growing list of city one star rated food businesses which includes Age UK Worcester and District Lunch Club in Bilford Court, The Admiral Rodney at Berrow Green, Your’s Pizza Bite/Little India in Ronkswood Hill, AK General Foods, Lifestyle Express in Kilbury Drive, Happy Taste in Orchard Street, O Nosso Cafe in London Road and The Fold Cafe, Bransford.

No business in Worcester has zero stars, the lowest rating.

We recently reported that Helen Cameron, WRS' food hygiene principal officer, has said hygiene standards had noticeably dropped.

"There has been a national trend of a drop in standards, which is now being seen here," she added.

READ MORE: 'Standards have dropped' food hygiene chief says

Each food business must display its FSA information on its venue and online.

If managers disagree with a rating, or believe their business has been upgraded since receiving the rating listed on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website they should contact the FSA directly.

All information published is based on results on the FSA website, food.gov.uk, and is correct as of February 18, 2022, with inspections listed as the latest carried out.