The owner of a food truck has slammed hygiene inspectors for slapping him with a one-star rating.
Harry Price, manager of Feral Kitchen, in Newquay, claims he was visited by ‘rude’ inspectors this summer who told him the place needed ‘major improvement’ to comply with the law.
But Mr Price alleged the inspector came ‘storming’ into his van ‘unannounced and unexpected’ before ‘touching stuff’ without wearing PPE – which he deemed ‘pretty rude.’
The chef suggested people should not ‘pay attention to the food ratings’ and claims to serve top-notch meals including fresh crab sandwiches and tomato salads.
Mr Price told Cornwall live: ‘Unfortunately for those people who pay attention to the food ratings and to the news/media and to councils and to politicians and police are almost certainly beyond redemption.
‘Fortunately, Feral Kitchen has an army of ambassadors, customers, followers and friends who care not for government guidelines, but who do care about the quality and traceability of the food they put in their body.’
Mr Price highlighted his push to promote healthy lifestyle choices and emphasied the importance of the ‘untamed’ ethos of his business.
‘It’s sexy food for sexy people. You can keep your sweaty pasties, sweets, cakes and ice creams. We’re going Feral. You are what you eat, here at Feral Kitchen we are feral, we are wild, we are untamed.’ Mr Price said.
He also stressed that he aims to source most of his ingredients locally and he even dives to catch crabs himself.
Following the inspection on July 31, 2024 Cornwall Council initially erroneously recorded the food truck’s hygiene rating as zero and has since issued an apology for the error.
But the council maintains that the business did not amend the issues within 24 hours as Mr Price claims.
Mr Price also claims he was told he would receive regular visits from an officer but claimed he did not see one again after the initial visit.
The Food Standards Agency website indicates that Feral Kitchen was instructed to make urgent overall improvements.
Significant improvement was required in terms of food safety management, including systems or checks to ensure the food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff are knowledgeable about food safety, and confidence from the food safety officer that standards will be upheld in the future.
Improvement was also deemed necessary in hygienic food handling and the cleanliness and condition of its facilities and building.
A spokesperson for Cornwall Council stated: ‘Following an unannounced inspection at Feral Kitchen mobile food catering van on July 31, a series of breaches in food hygiene and food safety regulations were identified.
‘These related to the management of food safety, cleanliness and the condition of facilities and hygienic food handling. During the inspection, the officer wore PPE.’
‘Feral Kitchen was given a food hygiene rating of 1 however due to an inputting error, Feral Kitchen’s food hygiene score was incorrectly showing as 0 on the Food Standards Agency website.’
‘Cornwall Council has apologised for this error and updated the rating as soon as the matter was brought to our attention. Follow up compliance visits have been undertaken since the initial inspection. The issues identified were not rectified within 24 hours.’
Feral Kitchen expressed that they did not wish to incur the cost for a re-inspection.
One review on Feral Kitchen’s Facebook sings its praises gushing: ‘We had the salad last weekend, it was the best food I’ve had in years. I highly recommend it, just wish we lived nearer so we could eat it every week!!!’