CHESHIRE Police headquarters in Winsford has come under scrutiny from hygiene inspectors after it was given one out of five for its canteen’s food hygiene.


Cheshire West and Chester Council inspectors conducted a Food Standards Agency spot check at the police headquarters on June 17 and gave the canteen a score of one, meaning ‘major improvements’ are needed.


Assistant chief officer Julie Gill said Cheshire Police considered closing the canteen following the rating but the force is now happy that the contractors will make the recommended improvements.


Assistant chief officer Gill said: “We have spoken at length to our main contractor for headquarters, including considering whether the canteen should remain open. We have listened to assurances and are happy that the action taken to respond to the recommendations has indeed been carried out and accordingly, the HQ canteen remains open.


“We take the health and safety of our employees very seriously and are committed to ensuring that the work environment is maintained to the highest standards.


“We have insisted that the company now have an urgent re-inspection to confirm our own assessment, and we will be monitoring the situation very closely in the forthcoming weeks, with our main contractor for the HQ site.”


A total of 5,093 businesses in Cheshire have been inspected with 181 given a score of one or zero.


Each business is given their hygiene rating when it is inspected by a food safety officer from the business’s local authority and the food safety officer inspecting the business checks how well the business is meeting the law.


Inspectors look at factors including how hygienically the food is handled, prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored, the condition of the structure of the buildings, the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities, and how the business manages and records what it does to make sure food is safe.