Vitoria restaurant challenges council over hygiene rating of two

Vitoria, an Italian and tapas restaurant on Coppergate, was awarded the food hygiene rating of two stars, meaning that improvements were necessary, following a City of York Council inspection on February 9.

As previously reported in The Press, the restaurant received a zero star rating on November 21.

However, the restaurant is now challenging the council over their scores, and looking into the appealing process.

• READ MORE: York cafe part of local chain receives one star food hygiene rating​

A spokesperson for the restaurant told The Press: "Like many other businesses in York we feel we have been targeted with these scores in an attempt to pay for revisits that often take months to happen.

"If the health and safety of the public is their main concern and our original score of zero was accurate, then why allow trade to continue and wait over three months to return for an inspection only after we paid a fee?”

The Press has contacted the City of York Council regarding this, and will publish their response as soon as we hear back.

Vitoria restaurant rated food hygiene score of 2 Picture: Haydn Lewis

• READ MORE: York restaurant manager speaks out over food hygiene score of zero

A spokesperson for the City of York Council previously told The Press that there has been a drop in food hygiene ratings in the city.

Anthony Dean, acting public protection manager at the council, said: "The ancedotal reduction in standards is possibly resulting from factors such as the impact of Brexit on numbers of workers available to work in the food sector, lack of suitably trained chefs and staff, and closure of businesses due to financial difficulties."

• READ MORE: Drop in hygiene standards at York food businesses, say inspectors

Vitoria had improved in two of the inspection's categories, and remained the same in the third.

The reinspection report said that the confidence in management saw the biggest improvement, upgrading from 'major improvements needed', to 'generally satisfactory', meaning that the manager had a satisfactory record of compliance to the statutory obligations.

The food hygiene and safety, which refers to the food handling procedures, had upgraded from 'major improvements needed' to 'improvements necessary', meaning more effort is required to not fall below the standards.

The structural compliance, which refers to the facilities and layout, remained the same as 'improvements necessary'.