Staff at 'dirty' Corby Pizza Hut made up food hygiene checks

Food hygiene inspectors found dirty conditions when they visited Corby's Pizza Hut - and staff falsified documents to show cleaning checks for the NEXT day had already been done.

The major chain's Charter Court takeaway, just off Butland Road, has been highly criticised by Corby Council in a report released to the Northants Telegraph under Freedom of Information laws.

When inspectors visited on November 12 they noted poor cleaning, dirty cloths being used without disinfection and three bags of chicken past their use-by date kept in the chiller.

Staff did not know how to properly deal with allergen controls, no soap was in the toilets and a mop was found covered in black and white mould despite being signed off as clean by a manager.

Environmental health officer Amanda King said she was "extremely concerned" to find monitoring check documents had been completed both for November 12 and November 13, the following day, which had been made up.

In the report, she said: "During the inspection I found evidence that temperature checks and other monitoring checks at critical points had been falsified.

"This is a very serious matter and cause for concern. Monitoring checks had been completed by staff in advance for the day of the visit and the next day.

"This is a serious breach of your systems and needs to be addressed with immediate effect."

The wash basin wasn't clean with dirty slime covering its seals, proving unit filters were covered in grease and dirt and the floor was dirty. A probe thermometer looked like it hadn't been used.

The takeaway was later given a rating of two out of five with 'improvement necessary'.

It had previously been given a perfect score of five out of five. The council noted the level of cleaning had improved when they later returned.

But when they were first inspected a number of flawed cleaning practices were found.

Ms King's report added: "Staff were using dirty yellow reusable cloths and degreasing solution to clean work surfaces without any stage for disinfection. When questioned staff did not know how to carry out a two stage clean of a food contact surface.

"The procedure for cleaning cloths at the end of the day was seriously flawed and I was not confident they had been disinfected or washed at all. The sanitiser spray container was dirty."

A rear door was also ill-fitting allowing access for pests. Ms King also noted that staff knowledge of food hygiene was 'inadequate' on some important matters.

Pizza Hut has been contacted for comment but is yet to provide a statement.