Yahoo News Devon restaurant owner blasts 'utterly ridiculous' hygiene rating
A seasoned Plymouth restaurateur with more than two decades of experience has hit out at the city's hygiene rating system following a low score for his establishment.
Mediterraneo, once located at 72 Mutley Plain, shut its doors in April 2024, but the owner's second restaurant under the same name in Truro, Cornwall, continues to flourish.
The Cornish venue was awarded a top five-star food hygiene rating by Cornwall Council on April 25. However, owner Andreas Drosiadis described the one-star rating given to his Plymouth branch weeks earlier as "offensive" and "embarrassing".
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Andreas said such poor ratings can devastate a business and labelled the one-star awarded on March 22 as "utterly ridiculous". The Mutley Plain restaurant has since ceased operations and has been transformed into an exclusive LGBT swingers' club, also managed by Andreas.
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He said: "The one-rating was an utterly ridiculous decision. I've had restaurants in four different locations and went through several inspections and I'd always got 5 or 4. A low score has a huge effect on professionals running restaurants.", reports Plymouth Live.
"It's embarrassing and shows little respect for professionals who've been cooking for many years. This is our life and then a hygiene inspector walks in and destroys our business with a low rating. I took it as a joke, but some people will be devastated.
"I think some inspectors are a lot stricter than others, but in regards to food safety and hygiene I don't think we deserved a one-rating for the Plymouth restaurant. I've worked in the industry for over 20 years and we know what we are doing."
Plymouth City Council (PCC) said hygiene inspectors were seeing "an increase" in non-compliance but this was partly due to a "backlog" after the Covid pandemic. Hygiene inspectors make unannounced visits to restaurants before giving a hygiene rating outcome between zero (urgent improvement necessary) and five (very good).
In 2019, 48 Plymouth restaurants were slapped with a one-hygiene rating and 20 eateries received a zero-rating. During the first year of the Covid pandemic (2020) seven restaurants received a zero-hygiene score and 18 were given a one-rating.
So far in 2024 (until May 15) four restaurants have received a zero-hygiene rating and 13 were scored a one-rating. Last year, (2023) 11 restaurants scored a zero and 35 eateries got a one-rating.
A spokesperson for Plymouth City Council said: "We are seeing an increase in non-compliance as we continue to work through the COVID-19 backlog as well as keeping up to date with new food businesses in Plymouth.
"Our food safety visits are unannounced; this is to gain a true representation of standards found at the time of the inspection.
"Between April 2023 and March 2024, approximately 10 per cent of our inspection outcomes were 0, 1 or 2 ratings, which means they require further action to improve. Conversely, approximately 90 per cent of premises inspected were rated 3, 4 or 5, which is compliant with food hygiene legislation."
