Two Morrisons stores have been pulled up by food hygiene inspectors and awarded a rating of one star, meaning “major improvement necessary” after out-of-date and defrosted food were uncovered during unannounced inspections earlier this year.
Details released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed inspectors in Caernarvon Road, Cheltenham, found food for sale that “posed a risk to human health” after freezers measured just –0.4°C. Morrisons’ own procedures had not been implemented at the branch, the inspectors warned.
The visit on 20 January found two freezers were switched off and marked as out of order. But two neighbouring freezers were still in use and contained meat and fish products for sale although “it was clearly obvious” that the food was not adequately frozen “as many of the items were soft and floppy”.
Temperature checking confirmed an air reading was –0.4°C and a probe of frozen cod fillets read –1.1°C – some 17 degrees warmer than the legal requirement to keep frozen food at –18°C or under.
The inspector concluded that all the defrosted items “posed a risk to human health” and were “not fit for human consumption”. Management staff agreed.
The report detailed a total of 431 items needed to be thrown out, including 48 packets of Morrisons Savers Chicken Nuggets 320g and 33 bags of Young’s Flipper Dippers 250g.
The inspector raised further concerns that some staff were not aware of the issues with the freezer, despite the freezer’s alarm system sounding two days before and a customer complaint to Cheltenham Borough Council the day before the inspection.
Environmental health officers also gave one star to Morrisons’ Aberystwyth store at the Parc Y Llyn Retail Park during a visit on 26 February after receiving customer complaints about the cleanliness and the state of the store’s freezers.
They uncovered two fresh SKUs – a chilli con carne ready meal and yellowfin sole fillets – were for sale a day beyond their use-by date, and warned that “further enforcement action” would be considered as out-of-date food was raised during its two previous inspections.
They also found dirty chiller curtains in the deli, a broken on/off button on the sealing machine in the deli prep kitchen, dirty freezers and “inadequate local implementation” of Morrisons’ hygiene policies.
“A significant quantity” of ready meals were stored above the legal limit of 8°C. Management were not aware of any alarms or notifications with the affected chiller until the digital monitoring panel was checked and revealed the chiller had been turned off. The second line of defence, a snowflake indicator sticker, was misread by an operations manager who told officers that a red snowflake meant there was no issue, when it meant the opposite.
A Morrisons spokesman said: “We take food hygiene issues extremely seriously and these reports reflect historic issues in both cases. As soon as we became aware of the rating, we took immediate action to address and resolve the issues raised. We are working towards re-inspections at both stores.”
They added that the Morrisons was addressing some specific and infrastructure issues and that the total number of food hygiene failures had fallen year on year.
It is understood that its store in Weybridge, which received zero rating in May, has been reinspected and a rating of five stars will be confirmed shortly.
The latest reports come as the FSA consults on plans for national level regulation that would combine central oversight by one primary authority and supermarket’s own data, reducing the number of local authority inspections, following pilot schemes.
The Cheltenham report detailed that Morrisons had entered into a primary authority partnership scheme with Wakefield Council. This had developed a food safety management system that “if followed at a local store level in practice” exceeds legal requirements.
However, the report warned “procedures had not been implemented in practice” and that staff “were either not adequately trained and/or supervised” to follow Morrisons’ emergency food safety procedures.
An investigation by The Grocer last year August found that 85 supermarkets nationwide had failed their most recent food hygiene safety inspections.
No comments yet