Filthy kebab house prepared meals with paint brushes, served out-of-date food and failed to clean mouldy freezer, hygiene inspection finds

A kebab house was found to prepare meals with paint brushes and serve out-of-date food during a food hygiene inspection.  

The staff at Cappadocia Kebab House in Ashford, Kent, were using the brushes to bast high-risk meats and also failed to clean a mouldy freezer. 

Hygiene inspectors visited the takeaway on January 10 and also discovered that staff were insufficiently trained to ensure food was safely cooked. The owners were  ordered to ‘deep clean’ the premises and to ensure it was cleaned daily.

Other shortfalls in basic restaurant hygiene included fridge temperatures that had not been properly recorded and food items were left open with no protection from pests or rodents. Some food was also found to have been left to defrost for over five days. 

A  lack of sanitiser meant food equipment and preparation surfaces could not be cleaned and there was no disinfectant to make food preparation safe from cross contaminations.

Shockingly, the inspector also discovered that out-of-date food had even been delivered by JustEat drivers. 

The inspector also found that the floor in the kitchen had broken tiles and was wet due to a leaking boiler – a safety risk which cannot be effectively cleaned without repairs.

That led to a ‘generally dirty’ premises which could attract pests, according to the council’s report.

Inspectors added that owner Serkan Gungor needed ‘to stop using the excuse of restaurant closing and start managing.’

Cappadocia Kebab House was previously a popular restaurant in the town before it was converted into a takeaway. Last October, it was was forced to temporarily close due to a lack of staff.

At the time, Mr Gungor said: ‘I was struggling to do everything myself, like serving customers, taking orders, making their drinks, serving their food and wiping the tables.

‘I am better off doing deliveries as the costs have dropped as well as I pay less wages now and I am using Just Eat’s drivers.’ 

A worker at Cappadocia Kebab House told MailOnline: ‘We’ve corrected all the faults and should be able to get the five star food hygiene rating back shortly.’