Australia’s Today Tonight – get it, today’s news presented at night – ran a report that four out of five sushi samples in certain areas of Australia were crawling with bacteria including Bacillus cereus, staphylococcus and listeria, and could cause serious illness.

This caused Go Sushi Rockhampton owner Glenda Johnson’s to claim the Channel 7 show ran a sensationalist report and that the dodgy sushi bit doesn’t apply to the Rockhampton area.

Associate Professor Fabbro, an environmental scientist at CQ University, said when buying any type of prepared food people should look to see how clean the outlet was, if there was a good stocking system operating and a cabinet to keep the food at the right temperature as well as if the product looked fresh, adding,

“With rice products it’s important to keep them well chilled.”

She also said because Rockhampton was in the tropics the council had a more vigilant testing regime than those in other places.

Today Tonight state producer Rodney Lohse said,

“Yes, we are all aware bacteria are everywhere, but that doesn’t mean we should be flippant about food safety. … Sorry, if Glenda finds this sensationalist but Queensland Health doesn’t, they found it concerning. So concerning Biotech Laboratories which conducted the testing on our behalf found it necessary to report their findings to Queensland Health before even we were notified. Queensland Health then immediately sent field officers to investigate and take action.”