A YORK cafe has been upgraded from a one to five star rating following a food hygiene inspection.

Brown's cafe restaurant and Rhodes restaurant, in the Brown's department store on Davygate, were awarded the food hygiene score of five stars, following a reinspection carried out by City of York council on April 25.

As previously reported in The Press, Brown's received the food hygiene rating of one star at an initial inspection on January 19.

York Press:

A spokesperson had said the one star rating was 'totally out of context and not a reflection of the cafe', as Covid and Brexit had impacted staffing issues and some documentation hadn't been filled in correctly. 

Regarding the new rating, Shirley Wells, the catering manager at Brown's cafe said: "We are delighted to be awarded the five star rating in the latest food hygiene inspection. 

"This reflects accurately the high standards that Browns strive to achieve over many years of trading.

"Food safety standards are our main priority. 

"We would like to thank all our loyal customers having faith in us throughout and to our catering team for their hard work and dedication." 

A spokesman for the council had previously said that they also suspect that the pandemic and Brexit has had an impact on the food hygiene ratings in some York's food businesses.

As previously reported in The Press, Anthony Dean, Public Protection Manager (Investigations and Compliance), said: "Where a business wants to have an inspection before their next scheduled inspection, in order to improve their score, they can apply for a rescore visit.

"Businesses are required to pay for these additional rescore visits to ensure that City of York Council has sufficient resources to carry out all programmed food hygiene inspections and ensure fairness for all businesses in York.

“Where a business feels that their score is incorrect they can ask questions of the inspecting officer and, if still concerned by the score awarded, lodge an appeal."

The inspection report read that the cafe had scored 'Good' in each of the three categories - food hygiene and safety procedures, structural compliance and the facilities, and the confidence in management - meaning that the cafe kept a high standard of compliance to the statutory obligations.

This was an improvement in two of the categories, as  the previous report had stated that that major improvements were needed with the confidence in management and the food hygiene and safety.

However the structural compliance was also rated 'Good' in the initial report.