Seoul Plaza which is a chain that sells a variety of Korean food and drinks opened up its latest store in Cornmarket Street on Friday, October 18.
Despite being housed in the relatively new Cheng Yu Tung building owned by Jesus College and being a well-known brand, the store fell majorly short during an inspection.
Oxford City Council’s Environmental Health team visited the premises on Thursday, November 7, and were left far from impressed.
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Stating that Seoul Plaza required ‘urgent improvement’, inspectors handed the store a zero-out-of-five food hygiene rating.
One key issue was the management of food safety with the report stating that ‘major improvement’ was necessary.
This refers to having a system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat and if there is evidence that staff know about food safety.
It also regards whether the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in the future.
The hygienic handling of food, including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage, also was a big problem for the inspectors as this too was marked as needing ‘major improvement’.
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Improvement was also deemed necessary with the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building.
This includes having an appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene.
Korea Foods, who own Seoul Plaza, has been approached for comment.
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