THE Hare and Hounds pub which reopened after a £200,000 refurbishment last year has been slammed by a food hygiene inspector.

The pub, in Station Road, Crowton, has been told it needs to make ‘major improvement’ to its hygiene following an inspection in March which resulted in a one-out-of-five hygiene rating.

The inspection, carried out by the Food Standards Agency, found that the pub was storing raw meat containers on top of cooked food chopping boards, leaving casseroles at room temperature for up to seven hours, storing raw fish next to cooked food, and was storing out-of-date food.

The inspector also found that the kitchen had no designated hand wash basin, was storing cooked roast potatoes in an outside storage room, and had a dirty ice-making machine.

The inspector said: “At the time of my visit, the chef was seen to put a container of raw bacon directly on top of the yellow chopping board (used for ready-to-eat foods). This presents a high risk of cross contamination which may lead to food poisoning.

“Soup and smoked salmon were found on your premises which were past their use-by date. It is an offence to sell or expose for sale food with an expired use-by date.

“Two large trays of open cooked roast potatoes were stored in the outside store/potato peeling room. This room is not suitable for open cooked food such as these. The outside store is suitable for raw potato preparation and storage of dry goods.

“I understand from discussion that high-risk food such as meat-based casseroles and joints of meat were left to cool at room temperature in the kitchen for up to seven hours. This presents ideal conditions for food poisoning bacteria to grow. It should be cooled within 90 minutes before being placed in the refrigerator.”

The Hare and Hounds, was reopened in August last year after a major investment from experienced pub owner Peter Wilkinson.

It has proven popular among customers since then, boasting a four-out-of-five rating on Tripadvisor.

Peter told the Guardian that despite serving food, the reason for the poor rating was the fact that the kitchen was not finished.

Peter said: “At the time of the visit, the kitchen was not finished. The inspector is due back any time and she will give us five stars.

“We set the kitchen up, we serving food, but it was ongoing, it wasn’t finished.

“She wanted us to make some improvements such as put a new sink in, and we have done that.”