A COCKROACH-infested Chinese restaurant, which may have given a customer food poisoning, has been closed down by health inspectors. The New Shanghai, in Longbridge Road, Barking, was ordered to shut immediately after Barking and Dagenham officials found

A COCKROACH-infested Chinese restaurant, which may have given a customer food poisoning, has been closed down by health inspectors.

The New Shanghai, in Longbridge Road, Barking, was ordered to shut immediately after Barking and Dagenham officials found it crawling with pests.

After a complaint from a customer who claimed to have suffered food poisoning after eating at the takeaway, the environmental health team paid the premises a visit on October 14.

Inspectors said they found a "significant" infestation throughout the restaurant with live cockroaches creeping up the kitchen walls, along the floors and inside drawers containing peanuts, chopsticks and dishcloths.

The problem was just as bad throughout the filthy restaurant and store rooms, on the serving counter and an official even spotted a cockroach crawling into a cup.

Insects were not found inside the food but there were open packets of salt and flour in the store room.

Council inspectors also discovered cooked noodles, spices and raw vegetables sitting out.

Cockroaches are notorious for carrying food poisoning bacteria.

The environmental health team decided the takeaway posed an "imminent threat to public health" and closed the New Shanghai.

A Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order was granted at Barking Court on October 19.

This means the business will be closed until the owner takes steps to fix all the problems noted by inspectors.

New Shanghai proprietor, Ngoc Fang, appeared in court and admitted that the premises were dirty.

She claimed the cockroaches had been living behind broken tiles but that the whole kitchen had now been retiled.

Fang was ordered to pay �1,150.30 towards the council's legal costs.

The restaurant was reopened last week and will be closely watched by the environmental health team.

Cllr Val Rush said: "When people go out for a meal they have the right to expect that it has been prepared in hygienic conditions.

"Cockroach infestations are thoroughly unpleasant and pose a serious health risk.