York’s only five-star hotel gets one star for food hygiene

‘The Grand, York, would like to reassure all customers and guests that this is an isolated case,’ says hotel

The Grand hotel in York (The Grand)

York’s only five-star hotel, The Grand, scored just one for food hygiene after a recent inspection.

Inspectors cited a number of issues after visiting the property on 21 February.

Food hygiene and safety were both rated “bad”, reports The Press.

Inspectors also reported that there was little confidence in the management when it came to training, policies, procedures and management records related to maintaining a good standard of hygiene.

In the UK, there are five different ratings for food hygiene standards, with 0 being the lowest and 5 being the best score.

Getting a rating of 1 means “major improvement is necessary”, according to food.gov.uk.

The only score lower is 0, which means “urgent improvement is required”.

“Following a recent Environmental Health Officer inspection, The Grand, York is naturally extremely disappointed to have been given a low star rating,” said a hotel spokesperson.

“The senior management team has taken immediate action to rectify all the areas of concern.

“In the two inspections prior to this most recent one, The Grand received four and five-star ratings and the hotel is 100 per cent confident that it will continue to achieve similar ratings in all inspections going forwards.

“A second and immediate inspection has been requested but in light of the current lockdown this is not possible right now.

“The Grand, York, would like to reassure all customers and guests that this is an isolated case which does not reflect the exemplary standards the hotel adheres to in both front of house and behind the scenes.”

The Grand underwent a £15m refurbishment in 2018, upping its room count to 207.

The hotel is currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.