Jamie Oliver today hit back over reports his upmarket City butchery was closed after mould was found on meat, saying: “mould is natural”.
The Barbecoa butchery, in One New Change behind St Paul’s Cathedral, voluntarily shut for 24 hours after public health officers gave it a score of one out of five in January.
The shop, which supplied the steakhouse of the same name upstairs, was found to have unclean fridge door handles, poor handwashing facilities, damaged flooring and a “heavy presence” of mouse droppings.
Meat hanging in basement fridges was found to have mould growing on it, slicers and vacuum packers were dirty and expensive Wagyu beef and offal cuts were past their use-by dates.
The butchery was closed voluntarily following the January inspection but has since been re-opened.
A three-course meal at the Barbecoa restaurant costs about £50. Founded in 2010 by Oliver, left, and American chef Adam Perry Lang, its website boasts of dry-ageing meat for “anything up to 70 days”.
A spokesman for the company today said: “The longer the meat dry-ages, the more the mould occurs.
“This is a natural process and is safe to eat.”
Details of the problems at the butcher’s shop have come to light following a Freedom of Information request.
The Jamie Oliver Group said hygiene issues “are extremely rare” in its restaurants.
It said: “Following the environmental health inspection in January we took the immediate decision to voluntarily close the butchery for several hours to urgently address issues raised.
“We reopened within 24 hours and officers noted improvements.”
