For many food places, a hygiene rating can make or break the business by giving customers an impression of what quality they can expect.
However, our friends at Lancs Live proved that this isn't always the case. Reporter Amy Fenton visited the Wood's Craft Bakery which was recently awarded the lowest possible food hygiene rating.
The owner of the bakery, which has been serving its local community for 40 years, claimed that no inspection took place, making the zero-star rating undeserved. The Whalley New Road store was opened by Catherine and Barry Wood in 1984 - they retired two years ago and searched for a new buyer.
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The shop was eventually sold to Chris and May Wang last October. When Amy visited the Brownhill shop during lunchtime, she was surprised that there was nothing to suggest the bakery was unhygienic, in fact, the place was filled with freshly made sandwiches.
For just £14, she purchased a cheese salad sandwich, a ham salad sandwich, a samosa, pork pie, a small blackcurrant pie, and two cans of pop. The sandwiches were supposedly packed full of ingredients - Amy was even asked if she wanted mayo or salad cream with her order.
The key ingredient of the sandwich, the ham, was of good quality and thick enough to fill up any hungry customer. Meanwhile, the pork pie was wrapped in a flaky and buttery crust while the blackcurrant pie was delicious enough to send Amy back to childhood memories of her grandma's baking.
Despite having a zero-food hygiene rating, it's clear from Amy's trip that something isn't clicking together as the quality of the food is not what you would expect from somewhere with such a low score. Queues outside of the shop also indicated that the community is not too phased by their favourite butty shop's rating.
After such a raving review, we might have to go and take a trip to Wood's ourselves!
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