A TAKEWAY has been displaying to customers it has a five star food hygiene rating when it is actually rated one star by health inspectors.

The rating is the next to lowest on Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) zero to five scale, and means that “major improvement is necessary.”

Your’s Pizza Bite / Little India in Ronkswood Hill was given the one star overall rating after FSA inspectors visited on May 12.

Inspectors were particularly critical of the management of food safety, which covers whether the business has 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.

On that inspectors found that major improvement was necessary.

For hygienic food handling, which covers whether the business has hygienic handling of food including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage, it was judged improvement was necessary.

On the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building, which includes the business has appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene, it was also judged improvement was necessary.

Despite it being four weeks since the inspection and the venue being notified, when a reporter visited the takeaway in recent days it was still displaying an old five star “very good” rating in a window of the front door.

After the FSA carry out inspections all food businesses are forced to display the correct information on their premises and online, so consumers can make informed choices about where to buy and eat food.

The Worcester News approached Your’s Pizza Bite / Little India, but no one was available for comment.

With the rating, Your’s Pizza Bite / Little India joins the list of one star food hygiene rated city businesses which includes Age UK Worcester And District Lunch Club in Bilford Court, Fortune House in St John’s, Groszek in Lowesmoor and Watan Supermarket in Cole Hill.

And Happy Taste, a Chinese takeaway in Orchard Street, recently received the rare zero star rating.

All information published is based on results on the FSA website as of June 9, 2021, and inspections are listed as the latest carried out.

Helen Cameron, food safety manager at Worcestershire Regulatory Services, said: “The food hygiene ratings are about putting power into the hands of the public because they can see at a glance the standard of hygiene in restaurants, cafes, take-aways and food retailers.

"We encourage people to alert us to any issues they find on 01905 822799 or food.gov.uk.”