The Boathouse Restaurant in Suffolk ordered to pay £2,900 after food hygiene breaches

Magistrates have ordered a Suffolk restaurant to pay £2,900 after owners pleaded guilty to four charges related to food hygiene breaches.

Ipswich Magistrates' Court heard that a food safety officer visited the Boathouse restaurant in Sudbury, on 15 September 2017, and found both the premises and equipment to be in a poor state of repair, with a risk of food contamination.

The inspector also found that the restaurant did not have a food safety management system in place and raised concerns that potentially allergenic foods were not stored safely.

Concerns identified by the inspector included, blood spillages in a fridge, meat being kept past its use by date, dirty floors, vegetables kept on the floor and a probe thermometer contaminated with food debris.

The restaurant was fined £2,200 and ordered to pay more than £600 in costs as well as a victim surcharge.

Cllr Christina Campbell, Babergh District Council's cabinet member for environment, said: "This is not the first time that our food safety team found problems at the Boathouse. A year ago we issued a simple caution, but the director did not heed the warning and I'd like to thank our team for their hard work in bringing this lapse to court. We will not tolerate low standards that put the public at risk and we can and will prosecute businesses that fail to meet them."

The restaurant ceased trading in early 2018.

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