An Italian restaurant in Wiltshire has responded after being mistakenly slapped with a one-out-of-five food hygiene rating online.

Casa, at Bank Street in Melksham, was hit with the disappointing grade online after an inspection on March 16.

But the rating has now been removed, and replaced with a notice saying "awaiting inspection", after the restaurant claimed the wrong inspection results had been published on the Food Standards Agency's website.

Casa told this paper they had been awarded a four-out-of-five, and provided a certificate to show this, but this was wrongly listed as a one-out-of-five.

A spokesperson said: "They came and gave us a four star rating and we've been in contact with them about the online rating, which is wrong.

"They've told us they're in the process of changing that. They didn't give us much explanation but said they're going to change it." 

Inspectors from the Food Standards Agency assessed them based on their performance in three key categories on the day of inspection.

This included their hygienic handling of food, the cleanliness and condition of their facilities and the restaurant’s management of food safety.

The local Italian eatery had originally been slammed for its management of food safety with inspectors claiming “major improvement” was necessary in this category.

This would have meant inspectors were not satisfied with the systems or checks in place to ensure food sold was safe to eat, or that there was a lack of evidence staff understand food safety.

But Casa's certificate showing a four-out-of-five rating indicates that hygiene standards at the restaurant are "good".

The business scored well for their hygienic handling of food, and were deemed to employ “good” food preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage practises.

The cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building at Casa were also judged to be “generally satisfactory” by inspectors, in the now removed report.