Mushrooms left to soak in a “broken and soiled” container on the floor and grease so thick it could be scraped off with a fingernail has led to a city centre Chinese takeaway receiving zero stars.

The Tasty Restaurant on Prince of Wales Road has received the lowest food hygiene rating, zero out of five, after an inspection from Norwich City Council.

The inspector, who visited the premises on February 17, reported “significant risks to food safety” with poor hygiene, contamination risks and poor cleaning standards.

In documents, the inspector wrote: “There is major non-compliance with legal requirements which have lead to significant risks to food safety.

“There are major and widespread lapses in safe food handling practices and procedures. You are failing to apply many of the controls needed to prevent cross-contamination.

“You must address all the contraventions as a matter of urgency.”

Contamination risks included “exposed foods” including an open pan of sauce which was stored close to the ground next to a floor mop and an open container of prawns on buckled and rusting shelving in the walk-in freezer.

Staff were also not seen washing their hands during the inspection.

Dirty equipment was another issue reported, including a meat slicer blade and its housing which was dirty with grease and old accumulated food debris (shavings of raw meat from previous slicing).

The inspector stated: “The underside of the circular white cutting board on the raw meat preparation table was covered in grease and black mildew which I could scrape off with my fingernail.

They continued: “The structure facilities and standard of cleaning and maintenance are poor.

“Improvements are needed in hand and/or equipment washing facilities.

“Major improvements are needed in the standard of repair and maintenance of the premises.”

It was recommended that staff training is needed due to food handlers not washing their hands often enough, using poor food storage practices, failing to control cross contamination risks, not aware of the food safety management system and they were not cleaning properly.

This newspaper has made several attempts to contact Tasty for comment including ringing and leaving messages.

You can view Norwich City Council’s food hygiene ratings and reports here, https://www.norwich.gov.uk/foodratings.