A PRIMARY school has said it is seeking a re-inspection after its canteen received the second lowest possible ranking in a food hygiene assessment.
Saints and Scholars Integrated Primary School, in Armagh city, which also has a nursery unit, received a grading of one out of five in an inspection on June 22.
In a summary of its findings, food safety officers noted that the hygienic handling of food was "generally satisfactory", but that improvement was "necessary" in the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building.
In the third and final area, the management of food safety was deemed to require a "major improvement".
Other schools have received similar food hygiene ratings in the past.
The school's principal, Julie Macartney, told The Irish News that the school had "never had any issues before" and will seek to schedule a re-inspection early in the new term.
"There was no hot water supply (as we had just turned our heating over to summer holiday heat) in the kitchen whereby staff could wash their hands.
"There was also no bottle of water in the nursery fridge to record fridge temperatures...this was an oversight as a member of the kitchen staff mistakingly thought that nursery children had finished their year so threw the relevant bottle of water out."
Mrs Macartney said that the "isolated issues" were "quickly addressed" and said that all kitchen staff would be "retrained in safe kitchen practices".
She said: "There were no issues with the food served or the food supplier. The school has always had very high standards of hygiene in the kitchen, and has never had any issues before and a retest will get scheduled early in the new term."
A total of 50 premises serving food in Northern Ireland currently have a rating of one or below.
Just two outlets, the Mace store on the Woodstock Road in east Belfast, and the Golden Palace Chinese takeaway in Lisburn, currently have a zero rating following inspections in June.
