A town centre café has been told cross contamination problems could have led to "serious consequences" after a visit from inspectors.

The Muffin Break site in Fremlin Walk, Maidstone, was given one of the lowest food hygiene ratings in September after only opening two months earlier.

The café, which opened in July, received a one out of five rating for food hygiene.

KentOnline can reveal a document from the inspection outlined cross contamination fears, for meat and dairy products, which could have led to a "serious problem" for anyone with an allergy.

It also said the café had a poor general standard of cleaning and it appeared staff weren't trained properly.

Speaking about an overcrowded display of food items, the inspector wrote: "At the time of inspection cross contamination was possible in the display chiller as foods were touching each other.

"While all foods are ready to eat, if a customer had an allergy of and one of the products touching the product they purchased contained the allergen then this could result in a serious problem.

"You must protect all food from contamination at all stages of production, processing, and distribution.

"You should reorganise your display chiller to ensure that products are not touching each other."

The café was also criticised for not washing out jugs properly which they claimed were cleaned in between uses.

The inspector found residue at the bottom of some jugs and explained this could have "serious consequences" for someone with a dairy allergy.

They said: "Should this jug contain milk residue, when you then produce a smoothie and the customer has a dairy allergy this could have serious consequences.

"You must ensure that the jugs are being thoroughly washed in between uses."

The report also revealed Muffin Break, which also has a shop in The Mall, Maidstone, that boasts a five rating, were criticised for defrosting bacon in the oven and not labelling food products correctly.

During the visit there were several containers of cake mix with only one label on it - the name of the mix - and no traceability batch codes or dates.

The inspector added: "If there was a recall of a product from your supplier, you would not be able to identify if you had the affected batch or not."

The café opened in the shopping complex, near Pandora and Schuh, in July.

It was told it needed to improve in two out of three categories.

Food handling was graded as "improvement necessary", while bosses were told management of food safety needed major improvement.

Muffin Break were approached for comment.