THE city council has clarified why a fledgling restaurant was allowed to continue trading despite inspectors giving it a zero rating for food hygiene and not all of its issues being resolved.

No hot water combined with other problems, including staff’s lack of allergen knowledge, meant Panama Jacks was considered an ‘imminent risk’ to public health but re-opened days later.

The inspection was done on October 30, days after the restaurant had opened, before inspectors returned a couple of days later and allowed it to open again on November 2.

On the second visit, inspectors found the boiler had been fixed but there was still out-of-date drinks in the walk-in chiller, incorrectly labelled food and storage issues, including cooked pulled pork set to be kept for six months.

A council spokesman told us this week the Food Standards Agency “sets the bar quite high” in terms of when a food safety officer is able to close down a business.

“If a business is preparing high risk food and has no hot water – or suitable temporary arrangements in place – the ‘imminent risk’ to public health will be assessed by the inspector and the business will most likely be formally closed,” he continued.

“Out of date products and incorrect labelling are not seen as an ‘imminent risk’, although they might be if they were combined with other issues.”

A local authority can become legally liable for any losses if a premises is refused permission to trade, he went on to say.

This means the inspecting officer “has to be sure that there is a continuing ‘imminent risk’ to public health”.

“No hot water is one, as is pest infestation, dirty premises, faulty equipment, serious cross contamination risks.”

An inspecting officer is “allowed to make a subjective judgement” on whether they are confident that the business will “deal with the issues that have been identified”.

Formal closures are “serious affairs” and have to be done by two officers and ratified by the magistrates’ court, said the spokesman.

But with the restaurant no longer, in theory, operating at a zero rating, a re-inspection will only be done at the next programmed visit six months later, unless the business pays for one sooner.

The FHRS Standard does not allow a re-rating to be made within three months of an inspection to “allow the premises to prove it can be compliant”.

The spokesman said Panama Jacks has not paid for an earlier visit but is due to be re-inspected automatically in the coming weeks.

When we spoke to restaurant owner Phil Davies in February, he said: “All the things that should’ve been done, are being done, and we just hope and pray that it comes out the other side.”

Mr Davies said the flagged up problems were dealt with within a matter of days and said the hot water issue was due to a new soft drink system fitted on the day of the inspection.

“Obviously it was tough, we’d just opened. The entire water supply was amended and a complete new system was put in.”

He claimed he'd been told hygiene inspectors would be visiting over the next two weeks.

He was unavailable before this story went to print.