The owners of a convenience shop and deli have been ordered to clean up their act after hygiene inspectors discovered dirty equipment, untrained staff and no hand-washing.

My Village Stores in Rolvenden, near Tenterden, was given a one-star hygiene rating by Ashford Borough Council, meaning “major improvement is necessary”.

Officers found several areas of the kitchen dirty and discovered there was “no hand-washing before or after food preparation”.

“There was a risk of contamination from allergens. All foods were prepared on the same chopping board and not washed in between the preparation of different types of sandwiches,” they wrote.

“There was no evidence of a stock control procedure, in particular to the safe shelf life of various unlabelled foods displayed in the deli counter such as sausage rolls, cream-filled cakes, cooked meat and salad.”

The visit on November 27 found the kitchen walls, ceiling and floor, as well as the sink and food preparation areas, were dirty.

Inspectors noted the chopping board and meat slicer were also in need of a clean, while repairs were required to the sink and floor vinyl in several areas.

The shop on High Street, which sells grocery goods, freshly made food and also houses a post office, has been in business for 43 years.

But ABC officers found its food handler had “no food hygiene and safety training” and ordered management to take swift action to rectify the situation.

“It was apparent during the inspection that the level of food hygiene awareness amongst your staff was inadequate,” said inspectors.

“You must ensure that all food handlers engaged in your food business are supervised, instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters.”

KentOnline understands that work to renovate and improve My Village Stores is ongoing and that the business is due to be reinspected later this month.

The owner of the shop declined to comment on the inspection’s findings.

Ratings of establishments where food is sold can be found on the Food Standards Agency website.

In neighbouring district Maidstone a KentOnline investigation found more than nine out of 10 eateries with low food hygiene scores have not been displaying the correct rating.

An earlier version of this story used an outdated picture of the outside of the shop, which displayed the names of the previous owners. We would like to make it clear that the shop is now under different ownership and wish to apologise to the previous owners for the error.