A pub owner has spoken out after her pub was given a one food hygiene rating due to an alleged misunderstanding about the paperwork she needed to fill out.

Judi Ablett, who runs Garibaldi in Burnham’s High Street, said during the initial inspection in May last year she was told by the health inspector that she was “doing everything right”, but she would have to be given the “detrimental” rating since she hadn’t filled out some necessary paperwork.

She said: “They told me initially I didn’t need to fill out the booklet because I wasn’t really serving food on a daily basis.

“Then they rated us a one [during the inspection last May].”

The pub featured in a list of 60 restaurants with the worst hygiene ratings revealed by the Bucks Free Press earlier this month.

Ms Ablett said she was told she could appeal the rating and apply for a revisit in three months’ time, which she did and waited for someone to get in touch about a revisit in August.

After waiting until October, she called the Food Standards Agency only to be told they had no record of her appeal, so she had to appeal again.

The situation took six months to be rectified, with a re-inspection taking place on February 16 and the pub being awarded a five rating – meaning ‘very good’.

She added: “They came out last week and gave me a five rating immediately. But it went from August to October to February.

“Luckily I’m not a gastro pub but it was still quite detrimental to the business.

“It was a kick in the teeth when I was given the rating because of something they told me I didn’t need to do.”