A Chinese takeaway given a low food hygiene rating was found to have “evidence of mouse activity”, a freedom of information request has found.

Wild Lemongrass in Racquets Fitness centre on North Street in Thame was given a two-out-of-five-star score after it was inspected on May 11.

Since the Oxford Mail obtained the inspection report, it has shown that “evidence of mouse activity in the store area” was found and the owner of the business was recommended to continue using a “competent pest controller”.

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The staff working at the restaurant were also found to not have the “suitable training in food hygiene” and the owner was told they must have staff trained to level two in food hygiene for catering.

An ongoing concern identified was the “handling practices and procedures for preparing foods, specifically for customers with allergens”.

The inspector said: “Small amounts of allergen in food could cause severe reactions and could even be fatal.

“You must raise staff awareness about allergens in food and how to protect foods from contamination with allergens.”

The restaurant owner was also given advice on how their dishes were prepared.

The inspector said the hot dishes were cooling for “long periods of time” and they must ensure in the future that the cooling process takes place within 90 minutes.

Steve Bonham from Wild Lemongrass told the Oxford Mail: "We had pest control in a few weeks prior to the inspection as we had a minor problem which was dealt with straight away.

"Secondly our low rating is not down to just food hygiene 

"We had some issues with our online ordering systems which weren’t displaying allergen information which have now been corrected and some wrong information on our takeaway menus which we were unaware of.

"All things we were asked to sort out have now been done so we now await our next inspection 

"Also we have just had new management taken over so a lot of the problems were the responsibility of the previous manager."