Leeds restaurant infested with insects slammed by food hygiene inspectors

A Leeds restaurant and takeaway infested with insects was slammed by food hygiene inspectors and slapped with a two star rating.

Inspectors found flies and evidence of ants in Erbil Grill in Harehills Lane. Management were told to have a big clean up and to stop putting food on “dirty equipment”.

The Lebanese takeaway was inspected on May 24 and inspectors saw flies darting around the wash up area and evidence of ants crawling around the servery area. Fresh tomatoes had also been put on top of pieces of dirty equipment in the sink.

Read more: Upset Leeds takeaway owner says one star rating made him feel 'bad'

Inspectors also spotted uncontained waste dumped at the takeaway’s rear entrance. They were also told to clean numerous dirty areas around the takeaway, including the toilet pan, floors and fridges.

There were concerns for how the staff handled food as well – particularly raw chicken. At the time of inspection, staff weren’t wearing any protective clothing.

Inspectors were also concerned by how staff were handling raw chicken (Adam Bowler)

Raw chicken was being handled in the basement where there was no hand washing facilities. There was no soap or towels provided in the upstairs hand wash basin, and no towels in the staff toilet room.

Raw chicken was stored above and next to bag of tomatoes in the walk-in chiller. Open raw burgers were stored on top of a tub of ice cream in freezer in the basement.

There was no documented food safety management system in place. Lamb stew was being prepared at the manager’s home and being brought to the food establishment – the manager’s home was not a registered food business.

Erbil Grill was contacted but there was no one available to provide a comment.

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