Concerns were raised about food management before a damning report that led to a celebrity chef’s Liverpool restaurant being slapped with a shocking hygiene rating.
It was revealed in February how Gino D’Acampo’s second venture in the city had been hit with a one out of five hygiene rating after an inspection by Liverpool Council’s environmental health officials in January. Information made available online by the Food Standards Agency said major improvements were needed at the venue at the INNSiDE Liverpool hotel in the former Liverpool ECHO building on Old Hall Street.
Now, an earlier report released to the ECHO under a Freedom of Information request has detailed how the business was warned of improvements it needed to make in terms of how it dealt with food back in September 2022. On that occasion, the restaurant was awarded a three out of five hygiene rating and deemed to be generally satisfactory.
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In the follow-up report from a visit at the start of this year, the ECHO revealed how health inspectors told the establishment: “You are not following your food safety management procedure. Some of the issues identified are repeated issues of non-compliance noted at the previous inspection on 06/09/22.”
The report into that inspection noted how frozen vacuum-packed lamb was not correctly labelled and did not include durability dates. In addition, the head chef informed health officials how all chilled foods should have a three-day shelf life.
Upon inspecting the in-house date labels in the walk-in chiller “it was clear that some vacuum packed foods were being given a 10 day shelf life.” These included duck, burger mix and Sunday roast.
A service trolley was spotted in the preparation kitchen with shards of broken glass on its shelf while heavy build-up of food debris and grease was found under the cooking range and the undercounter freezer in the main service kitchen. Inspectors wrote: “Although you have a food safety management system in place, it became clear at the time of inspection that some of your procedures were not being followed in practice as noted above.”
The hotel opened in September following extensive renovations to the building after the ECHO' s move to new offices across the road in St Paul's Square in 2018. The 17-floor development includes the city's second Gino D'Acampo restaurant, which has a sky bar.
In January, officers found that a number of foods were still in a walk-in fridge with expired manufacturers use-by dates. Napoli style sausage was found to be a week out of date while 18 tortelloni pumpkins had a use by-date ranging from January 3-15.
The offending food was voluntarily disposed of according to the report, with time frames set by the local authority to rectify issues. Mr D’Acampo’s first venture opened its doors in the former HSBC bank building on Castle Street almost six years ago and was replaced by the 200-cover Riva Blu.
A spokesperson for Gino D’Acampo Hotels and Leisure said: “We’re extremely disappointed with this rating and have taken immediate action to address the points raised. Our expert consultants have since conducted a robust audit and were satisfied that corrective measures have been met.
“A re-inspection has already been invited and we are confident of seeing a return to higher scores in line with our sibling restaurants.”
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