A vintage tea room which only opened a year ago in an Oxfordshire town has been slammed by food hygiene inspectors.
Vintage Teas, founded by Heidi Rushby, opened at Lock 29 at Castle Quay shopping centre in Banbury in May 2023.
A range of cream teas, afternoon teas, cakes, home-made sausage rolls and scones are available to eat in or takeaway.
However, inspectors from Cherwell District Council’s Environmental Health team were left unimpressed with what they found.
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Vintage Teas at Lock 29 at Castle Quay in Banbury. (Image: Lock 29)
Following the inspection on Wednesday, June 19, Vintage Teas was given a poor food hygiene rating of one-out-of-five and told that “major improvement” was necessary.
One major issue at the site was the spot’s management of food safety which was rated as also requiring ‘major improvement’.
This refers to whether there is a system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served at the venue is safe to eat.
It also concerns whether there is evidence that staff know about food safety and if the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.
Despite facing problems in that regard, the eatery’s hygienic food handling was rated as ‘generally satisfactory’.
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This refers to the preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage of food.
Similarly, Vintage Tea’s cleanliness and condition of their facilities and building were also described as being ‘generally satisfactory’.
This includes having an appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene.
The Oxford Mail has approached Vintage Teas for comment.
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Heidi Rushby and the team in 2023 (Image: Lock29)
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