A meals-on-wheels business given a one-star food hygiene rating for its service at a care complex has insisted its problems were with its paperwork.
Country Kitchen Foods, which partially operates out of the Harriet Court in Lakenham, was visited by Norwich City Council inspectors on January 23 and given a lowly overall rating despite praise for its "high" food and safety standards.
The business, which provides chilled and frozen prepared meals for the NHS and other companies around Norfolk, has been praised throughout the report for its high standard of hygiene, cleanliness and food safety.
"Food hygiene standards are high," the report states. "You demonstrated a very good standard of compliance with legal requirements."
However, the report concludes that the prepared meal business can only be awarded one star given the fact that it has the paperwork in place to operate as a caterer and not as a small food manufacturer, which it is now deemed to be.
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Kirsty Murphy, chief executive of Country Kitchen Foods, said: "We are grateful to be given an opportunity to reinforce that the quality and safety of our food production is not in question.
"As a local small business, we have grown extremely quickly and have been re-categorised from a caterer to a food production company.
"This comes with a vastly different type of paperwork requirement.
"Since the inspection, we have worked exhaustively to meet every demand and requirement that the food hygiene officer has requested of us.
"We have shared all updates with them every step of the way.
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"We have paid and are waiting for a re-rating which we hope will be done very soon."
The rating followed an inspection of the Harriet Court branch of Country Kitchen Foods and has not been applied to the whole business.
Norse, which runs the housing with care complex in Lakenfields, near County Hall, declined to comment.
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