Lambourn Rice Bowl takeaway hygiene is dramatically improved

Score jumps from 'urgent improvement required' to 'good'

A LAMBOURN takeaway which had scored a zero in West Berkshire Council’s food hygiene ratings has dramatically improved.

Last year, The Rice Bowl in the village High Street was rated ‘0’ – meaning “urgent improvement” was necessary.

It was the only food outlet in West Berkshire to have been given the lowest possible score.

Specifically, the council rated the High Street Chinese takeaway’s food hygiene and safety practices as “bad”, its structural compliance as “poor” and its confidence in the management as “little”.

But all that has now changed.

The Rice Bowl has improved so much that it has now been rated a ‘4’.

The system for grading premises is as follows:

0 – Urgent improvement is required

1 – Major improvement is necessary

2 – Some improvement is necessary

3 – Hygiene standards are generally satisfactory

4 – Hygiene standards are good

5 – Hygiene standards are very good

West Berkshire Council requires food outlets to display the green ratings stickers and states: “We check food businesses to ensure they follow food hygiene law and serve food that is safe to eat.

“A rating is given to businesses to show how well they are doing overall based on hygiene standards at the time of the inspection.”

Another success story was The Queens Arms at East Garston.

That was deemed to need major improvement, having only scored a ‘1’ last year.

A delighted owner Freddie Tulloch told this newspaper last month: “We’ve just been awarded a five-star hygiene rating by West Berkshire Council.”