THE owners of a popular Italian restaurant have moved to reassure customers following the awarding of a low food hygiene score.

As previously reported, Donatello in Orford was handed a one-out-of-five-star score by the Food Standards Agency, which can be viewed on the agency’s website.

The Orford Lane eatery was told that, in terms of the management of food safety, ‘major improvement’ was necessary.

While in the hygienic food handling category and the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building category, improvement is necessary, say inspectors.

Following the rating, the owners of family-run business Donatello have issued a statement to customers in which they say they are committed to regaining its five-star rating within weeks following this ‘low point’.

They said: “It has come to our attention that a poor food hygiene rating has been published for Donatello today. We wish to outline the issues raised in the report.

“In March this year, we received an environmental health officer inspection, where it was highlighted that we needed to make some structural improvements as the building is old, some minor improvements to our paperwork regarding staff training, and to fix hygiene cladding onto our kitchen walls.

“During the week when the hygiene cladding was being fitted, we had another environmental health officer visit.

“This time, no paperwork was checked and all attention was on our dedicated hand wash basin. Staff at this time were using an alternative sink for hand washing and hygiene.

“This was not deemed acceptable, and we were told that if the dedicated hand basin was not reinstalled immediately, we would not be able to continue to operate.

“These works have been carried out, and a re-inspection has been booked.

“We are committed to getting back to ‘five-star hygiene’ and we should receive that within three months.

“We as a family have been in the food business for more than 26 years and pride ourselves on being well-loved within Warrington, and this is undoubtedly a low point.

“We wish to reassure customers that we own and run another takeaway premises, Don Quattro, where we handle food in the exact same manner and have received a five-star hygiene award last week.

“If anybody has any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.”