A catering provider for a primary school in Richmond has been told it needs to make ‘major improvements’ to its food safety management.

A recent report by the Food Safety Officer for Archdeacon Cambridge’s Primary School found issues with food safety monitoring records, and criticised the cooling, defrosting and reheating of food on the premises.

Radish Catering, who are responsible for the kitchen, were given a rating of 1 out of 5 by the officer in December last year.

The report strongly advised the operator to “reassess your school catering operation”, citing the increased safety risk of defrosting and reheating food for young children.

The officer said: “In my experience of primary school and nursery catering, these additional risks are avoided by only cooking food for the day’s service and discarding any leftover food.”

The officer also reported errors for monitoring and record keeping for frozen meals.

In two instances, food which should have only been frozen for one month had been frozen for two months instead.

Likewise, records showed that a frozen pork was reheated before its leftovers were cooled again and refrozen.

While the chef assured the officer the reheated pork had been finished and the frozen pork was part of a new batch that had been cooked that day, records did not show this.

The officer also highlighted issues with an empty tissue dispenser, damaged floor covering and lights not working.

The issues must be resolved immediately and within one month where it involves undertaking structural works.

Archdeacon Cambridge’s Primary School declined to comment, saying this was the responsibility of Radish catering.

Radish catering has been contacted for comment.

Archdeacon Cambridge’s Primary School was inspected on November 26 2019 and the rating remained correct as of February 7 2020.