A popular new Indian deli and takeaway in Blackpool was forced to close temporarily in July over food hygiene and gas safety concerns.
Eat Indian, on Church Street, was hit by zero food hygiene rating when Blackpool Council visited on 3 July despite the eatery only opening at the end of June.
Issues cited in documents, given to Eat Indian after the inspection and obtained by The Blackpool Lead, included placing containers in a pool of blood present in the fridge, hands not being washed and no surfaces being cleaned in the entirety of a one-hour visit and a lack of awareness of cross-contamination risks.
Other issues included food being stored on the floor, employees wearing sandals, vegetables on the fire escape stairs and raw meat being left uncovered.
Eat Indian was served with a Hygiene Improvement Notice by Blackpool Council and told to remedy the issues by 1 August - or face prosecution.
As a result, owners at Eat Indian voluntarily closed the premises on the same day to implement the necessary improvements dictated by the Hygiene Improvement Notice. This is not an unusual step for a business to take when they receive a low hygiene rating as the alternative is often forced closure. The business can only reopen after this with permission from council officers.
The business explained this sudden and short notice closure by telling customers - and The Blackpool Gazette - that there had been a burst water pipe.
Pictures taken inside Eat Indian at the time of inspection in July.
But in the short time the closure was in place, owners worked on improving conditions and The Blackpool Lead understands they were brought up to at least a sufficient legal standard - usually the equivalent of a hygiene rating of three.
However, Blackpool Council also told The Blackpool Lead that not all of the issues, which included not providing evidence of maintenance of the gas installation, had been resolved when subsequent visits were made by food safety officers.
The food hygiene rating at Eat Indian is still at zero as the business has not yet requested a formal reassessment.
A Blackpool Council spokesperson told The Blackpool Lead: “On 3 July 2024, a food hygiene inspection was carried out at Eat Indian. This resulted in the voluntary closure of the business, the serving of hygiene improvement notices and a zero food hygiene rating.
“A revisit was carried out soon after the voluntary closure, whereby specified requirements to re-open had been met.
“Officers have visited on a number of other occasions in relation to the compliance of hygiene improvement notices, and a health and safety improvement notice. At this stage not all of the improvements we have asked for have been met.
“The business has not requested a reassessment of their food hygiene rating so it remains as zero.”
Blackpool Council did not directly address the question of whether it intends to proceed with prosecution.
The Blackpool Lead approached Eat Indian Blackpool for a statement, and visited before publication, but received no response to our questions.
Eat Indian in Blackpool. Credit: The Blackpool Lead
Eat Indian currently has four outlets in total - in Kendal, Preston, Lancaster and Blackpool.
While all four outlets are managed as different entities - according to Companies House - they all fall under the directorship of Fuzail Mohammed Patel.
The Hygiene Improvement Notice served to Eat Indian in Blackpool would be the first step towards prosecution unless those improvements were made - something Patel has experienced before.
In 2023, he pleaded guilty to 12 offences under The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 at Lancaster Magistrates’ Court.
This related to his directorship at Eat Indian 2 Ltd which was trading out of Lansil Industrial Estate in Lancaster and serving as a supplier to the outlets in Lancaster, Kendal and Preston.
The issues identified by the team at Lancaster City Council included poor controls in place for cooling food, storage of waste, cleanliness and maintenance, hand washing, transport of food and non-compliance with statutory notices served to seek improved standards at the premises.
Sentencing took place at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court in the same year and saw Patel fined £7,800, ordered to pay the council’s costs of £6,229.65 and a victim surchage of £190. Eat Indian 2 Ltd was ordered to pay a total of £44
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