The owners of a Kingsbridge coffee house and an ice cream parlour have been left with a bitter taste in their mouths after health inspectors awarded both businesses one-out-of-five scores in food rating standards.

South Hams District Council’s (SHDC’s) zero-to-five rating scheme reflects the findings of an inspection and provides consumers with information about hygiene standards in food premises.

In the case of the Fika Coffee House and Scoops Ice Cream Parlour, owners Craig Douglas and Andrew Dayment were left nonplussed after the inspector’s visit on July 2.

While both businesses obtained good scores in both food handling practices and cleanliness, the inspector concluded that major improvements were necessary regarding ‘food safety’.

In Fika’s case, this was mostly due to not having a lock for an outside bin, according to Mr Douglas.

“It is obviously our responsibility - we didn't have a lock at the time – so everyone just uses it,” said Mr Douglas, who took over the business just over a year ago with his wife, Katie.

A mix up over paper work was also flagged up by the inspector, he said.

Close by on Fore Street is the Scoops Ice Cream Parlour. Its owner, Mr Dayment, said he felt “devastated” after seeing the score, adding that the low rating was due to a rule requiring bathroom doors to be kept shut at all times and a claim that tea towels were not being washed frequently enough, which he strenuously denied.

“We wash tea towels every day. Unfortunately, the toilet door was open (on the day of the inspection), but I just feel that we've been served a really bad deal, to be honest, because we've got a lot of procedures in place.

“It's our busy time - this is when we make our money, really, so it's definitely not what we want,” added Mr Dayment, who pointed out that Scoops had previously scored a top five rating.

Under the terms of the scheme, a business owner can appeal the rating and request a re-score visit if they believe the inspection has been incorrect or unfair.

However, a spokesperson for SHDC said the council had not received a request for a new visit as the paper went to press. “We’ve not received any formal appeal, nor have they asked for a re-score inspection at the time of writing. So we cannot re-assess the score unless they apply for us to do so,” he said.

Cllr Denise O’Callaghan, executive member for environmental health and licensing, defended the work of the inspectors, saying that the scores given to both establishments “were reflective of the food standards found at the time”.

She said: “Businesses need to have systems or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, have evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer must have confidence that standards will be maintained in future. The inspectors found failings with the management of food safety during the visit. As a result, the premises were awarded the 1 rating.

“The food hygiene rating scheme has safeguards to ensure fairness to businesses. This includes an appeal procedure if the businesses feel the rating was unfair, and a ‘right to reply’ for publication, which enables a business to say how they’ve improved. Businesses can also request a re-score inspection if they’ve made improvements.

“Any business can contact us for further clarification on their score via email at [email protected].”

Fika has consistently obtained excellent reviews on the Tripadvisor comparison website, as has Scoops, the latter obtaining only two low scores related to criticisms about the quality of service and opening times.

Kingsbridge mayor Julia Wingate, who also owns The Trading Post toy and bike shop in Fore Street, defended the quality of local businesses, saying they offered “a really high standard”.

She said: “We've got some fantastic local businesses that offer a wide range of products and services at a really high standard, (but) if you've just missed a rating by a minor issue, that needs to be communicated to the customers so they know where a business might have failed.”