Tesco responds to poor hygiene rating at Oxford superstore

The Tesco superstore in the Oxford Retail Park in Ambassador Avenue in Cowley was visited by Oxford City Council’s Environmental Health Team in February.

At the time the superstore had been told improvement is ‘necessary’ by food hygiene inspectors.

Inspectors stated that ‘improvement (was) necessary’ in the food hygiene rating of the stores.

This specifically focused on the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building.

This concerns having appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable food hygiene.

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A Tesco spokesperson said: “We set ourselves the highest store standards and take hygiene extremely seriously, with comprehensive cleaning and food safety processes in place across all of our stores.

“The majority of our stores have a hygiene rating of five, the highest rating, and we have taken immediate action to address the recommendations made during the store inspection.”

The store said they had taken action to address the recommendations made within the report for the Oxford Superstore, and will be applying for a re-inspection shortly.

The hygienic handling of food including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage was only rated ‘generally satisfactory’.

Although, the management of food safety for the store was rated as ‘good’.

A Tesco megastore in East London was given a zero-star food hygiene rating three years ago after a customer reported seeing a rat on the premises.

The branch was ‘not found in clean condition and good repair’ and was found to have mouse activity, including droppings, in a warehouse.

A store in Daventry, Northamptonshire, also failed its food inspection last June.