A burger van has been shut down after it received a zero food hygiene rating following four years of scoring one out of five. Alex Burger Van, run by Asen Mitkov, in Millbrook Road on Stover Trading Estate in Yate, was refused a licence renewal by South Gloucestershire councillors.
The licensing sub-committee also ruled Mr Mitkov was not a “fit and proper person” to hold a street-trading permit following an objection by environmental health to the application on public safety grounds. The hearing on Friday, May 26, was told the owner had been warned repeatedly to improve hygiene standards but had failed to do so and that any measures he introduced had been only temporary before “slipping back” to unacceptable levels a year later.
A food safety inspection by the council in April found that he used the same set of tongs for raw and cooked meat, stored lettuce on the bottom shelf of the fridge between uncooked bacon and sausages and failed to check the temperature of the fridge, which contained black pudding and cheese in broken plastic tubs. It also found the van was in need of an “urgent clean”, records were not up to date, including no current gas safety certificate, food was not at the required temperature, Mr Mitkov did not wash his hands between handling money and bread rolls, and “a dirty brush from the dustpan was resting against the chopping boards”.
