Excerpt: Alarming pictures released today show the conditions inside 'Britain's worst pub kitchen' in which environmental health inspectors found nearly 200 items of rotting food.

Shocked officials immediately closed the Rose and Crown pub in Thaxted, Essex, after discovering piles of expired and putrid ingredients.
Work surfaces and utensils were smothered in thick grease, floors littered with rotting detritus and fridges covered in mould and rotting food containers.

The kitchen did not have any hot water, meaning staff could not wash up or clean their hands properly.

Inspectors even caught owner preparing food for hungry customers in the rancid conditions in a case described by one hygiene expert as the worst she had ever seen.

The grim discovery was made after a surprise inspection by environmental health officers on December 9 last year.

They were appalled by stinking pots containing decaying beans and...