An Iceland supermarket in Trafford was hit with a zero-star food hygiene rating after inspectors found evidence of a mouse infestation – but the store has already made serious improvements, earning a new five-star rating.
Inspection Details
Hygiene inspectors from Trafford Council visited the Iceland store on Tennis Street in Old Trafford on June 18 following reports of a ‘live rat sighting’ in the store the day earlier. While inspectors found no evidence of rat activity on the day of their visit and accepted that the matter had been appropriately dealt with by staff and pest control, they still identified a series of health and safety concerns requiring ‘immediate’ attention.
Inspectors found evidence of a ‘mouse infestation was found throughout’, with mouse droppings sighted on the shop floor, behind freezers, under shelves across the premises, and in the stockroom.
Inspector's Findings
“Your staff are completing pest checks daily and are saying there are no issues when droppings are in fact present,” the inspector wrote in the report, which the Manchester Evening News has seen in full. “Either staff are not completing pest checks properly each day or they are not adequately trained to notice the signs of pests in the business.”
Inspectors told owners to ‘rectify this immediately’ and ensure all staff were re-trained regarding store cleanliness and pest checks. The report deemed the store’s cleanliness to be ‘poor throughout’, highlighting how areas behind freezers, in the stockroom, and inside the walk-in fridge had not been adequately cleaned. The inspection also found that plastic curtains inside the walk-in chiller areas were dirty and noted a ‘loose’ ceiling tile in the stockroom that required immediate repair.
Store Response and Re-inspection
As a result of the inspection, bosses voluntarily agreed to close the supermarket for a short period while pest control treated the site. The store was only allowed to re-open following approval from Trafford Council.
The store has since been revisited by council hygiene inspectors, who rescored it five stars. The visit on July 14 acknowledged the shop for having ‘good’ standards in food safety management and cleanliness, while hygienic food handling was marked as ‘very good’.
In a statement, an Iceland Foods spokesperson said: “Iceland Foods takes safety, hygiene and standards with the utmost seriousness, and is committed to maintaining a safe and clean environment. After working with the local authority to understand the context of their inspection of our Old Trafford store in June 2026, the store was re-inspected and received a 5 star hygiene rating on the 14th July. As a business, across our store portfolio we aim for the highest standards and we achieve excellent overall compliance with the relevant Food Safety Regulations, with 98.6% of our stores holding five or four star food hygiene ratings.”
