A BURTON primary school has been told to clean up its act after environmental health inspectors discovered out-of-date food during a spot check.
St Modwen’s Primary School in Belvoir Road, Horninglow, was awarded three out of a possible five stars under East Staffordshire Borough Council’s Rate My Place scheme.
The school was spot checked by health watchdogs on Tuesday and a number of problems were discovered.
One of the main issues was out-of-date food — some of which dated back seven months and spices which were found to be more than 12 months out of date. The school was warned about the same problem during last year’s inspection.
During the check, officials found an open box of Dairylea Triangles in the fridge with a best before date of May 15, 2011. Under that were a further three boxes with best before dates of September 6 and October 5, 2011.
In the dry store an array of food products were out of date, including a can of butterbeans, turmeric, mixed spices, parsley, basil and mixed herbs. The herbs were 13 months past their sell-by date.
Also discovered was pizza toppings dated November 9, ham dated November 10, along with garlic butter and grated cheese which should have been disposed last month.
The report by the inspector said: “You must make sure that food is disposed of by the best before date as per the critical limit in section 1.3 of your Food Safety Management System.
“The out of date issues raised were similar to those raised on my previous inspection in March 2010, thus indicating that the level of staff training may be lacking.”
Other minor issues were reported, one of which included a bin being stored in front of the wash-hand basin which restricted access.
Liz Staples, cabinet member for education and skills at Staffordshire County Council, said: “The health and safety of young people in our schools is paramount and we are taking this report extremely seriously.
“We are satisfied that the food involved would not have reached children at the school, but we share the concerns raised and the staff involved will be receiving additional training.
“We will be taking further action to make sure an incident like this does not happen again.
“I welcome the report from the borough council and the Rate My Place website, which independently monitors food standards.
“We want to ensure that hygiene and safety in our school kitchens are on a par with the highest quality restaurants in the county.”
