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A London hospital has been forced to close a canteen kitchen after inspectors found mouse faeces inside onions and on the kitchen equipment.
The facility at University College Hospital’s building in Marylebone’s Westmoreland Street was handed a ‘zero’ food hygiene rating after the late-January discovery.
The kitchen was used for a ground-floor cafe run by the outsourced Compass Group, which serves food to staff and visitors.
A food hygiene inspection obtained by the Standard under freedom of information laws said “mouse droppings” were found on chopping boards, a trolley, the floor and on the dough mixture machine.
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It added: “At the time of the visit, there were mouse droppings within the onions in the cage.”
Inspectors from Westminster City Council also raised alarm about a lack of soap, saying: “At the time of the visit, there was no soap at the kitchen wash hand basins.”
The kitchen has remained closed since the inspection.
In a press release announcing its contract with the hospital in 2020, the Compass Group boasted it would maintain “consistent, high standards of cleaning” while offering “freshly cooked” meals to patients.
A spokesperson for the outsourcing giant said that it had acted swiftly to resolve the hygiene issues and that it hoped to reopen the venue “imminently”.
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“We take food safety incredibly seriously and following an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) visit we voluntarily closed a basement kitchen. We are looking to reopen the kitchen imminently,” said the spokesperson.
“We are working with the EHO and hope to facilitate a follow up visit soon. This matter arose following building works in the area.”
It said that patients’ meals were not affected because these were prepared off-site and an alternative kitchen for the cafe is being used during the closure.
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A spokesperson for the UCLH Trust, also said it was working with Compass to resolve the issue, adding: “The kitchen prepares food for a retail café for staff and visitors – patient catering is unaffected as this food is prepared offsite.”