CLAIMS from whistleblowers a restaurant is serving food out of a dirty kitchen have been outrightly dismissed by the company running it.

Pictures sent to the Echo show a tray of mouldy tomatoes allegedly stored, uncovered in a fridge alongside other food in the Harvester restaurant at the Shorehouse in Ness Road, Southend.

Another picture shows the back of a grill which is covered in burnt fat, residue and other dirt which has allegedly not been cleaned in months.

The photos, taken in November, come just two months after the restaurant was given a rating of four by the Food Standards Agency in September, which rated the food handling as “good”

and the cleanliness of the facilities “generally satisfactory”.

One whistleblower claimed: “The management would be aware of the state of much of the food, but were happy to let it proceed.

“A disciplinary would be threatened if people didn’t use the dirty food.”

Another whistleblower claimed proper practices were not being followed and complaints had been made to Southend Council’s environmental health department about the situation.

A council spokesman wouldn’t confirm they had received complaints, but said: “Our environmental health team take all complaints very seriously and always ensure we take appropriate action where necessary.”

Mitchell and Butlers, who manage Harvester restaurants, defended standards at the venue and questioned the claims.

A spokesman said: “We would like to reassure our guests we take the safety, hygiene and quality standards of the food we serve extremely seriously. We have robust cleaning policies in place and to ensure we monitor standards, we conduct unannounced, independent safety audits of our kitchens.

"The most recent one took place last week at this business, which found no issues with cleanliness and rated the restaurant a 4 out of 5 in food safety.”