Newly-released health ministry data shows a marked increase in mandated closures of Czech food establishments by health and safety inspectors. During 2015, 259 restaurants and other food establishments were ordered closed across the county for various hygiene-related violations.
Around 23,000 inspections of eateries were carried out last year, according to official figures from the ministry of health’s food hygiene inspectorate, which is headed by chief hygiene officer Vladimir Valenta:
“The main violations related to operational safety, for example permitting clean and unclean items to mix; also shortcomings in sanitation procedures, poor cleaning routines, and equipment in poor condition.”
In total, CZK 13 million in fines were levied for unhygienic conduct spanning around 4,500 violations. In 919 specific cases, establishments were ordered to immediately address food safety shortcomings. Mandated closures were up by 105 in comparison to 2014.
During 2015, hygiene inspectors also banned 2,000 persons from working in the food service industry for endangering public safety.
Word of mouth, spread through social circles or social media, can make or break an eatery — especially in a hyper-competitive market like Fort Collins. A negative one-word rating from the county health department can spell disaster.
That’s why the owners of restaurant 415 at 415 Mason St. in Old Town Fort Collins are objecting to the latest in a trio of “inadequate” ratings their eatery has received from the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment.
“We want to be the catalyst for change,” said 415 co-owner Andre Mouton. “The system is severely lacking; it’s broken.”
County health officials periodically examine restaurants and other food-service facilities, looking for factors that can increase the risk of patrons contracting a food-borne illness. Detailed reports on those risk factors are summarized by a risk index that features five ratings: excellent, good, average, marginal and inadequate.
The one-word ratings are published weekly in the Coloradoan. An inadequate rating gives people the impression the restaurant is serving bad food, said Mouton, a veteran restaurateur.
In reality, he said, many of the violations that led to the inadequate rating 415 received in February were administrative in nature, such as not having the proper warning on its menu about consuming raw or undercooked foods, employee drink cups being placed next to clean dishes and a bottle of Windex stored next to clean linens.
According to the complete report from the inspection, 415 received its largest deductions for issues of adequate cooking and potential cross-contamination from equipment, and for hot and cold holding of food. The full inspection is available at noconow.co/415inspect.
Mouton and co-owner Seth Baker admit there are areas in which they can improve, “but our kitchen is one of the cleanest in the city.”
According to the restaurant’s inspection history, 415 has been rated inadequate in each of its last three complete inspections, dating back to October 2013. The restaurant has been docked points for adequate cooking and hot or cold handling in the majority of the eight inspection reports listed on the county website.
Business has unfairly suffered, Baker said. “We strive to be a great place to work,” he said. “We are all local kids and the community is important to us. We are doing everything in our power” to be the best.
Mouton and Baker, however, say they are committed to working to change and improve the county’s 20-year-old inspection rating system.
Each county has a slightly different rating system. Larimer County issues ratings from inadequate to excellent. Weld County gives letter grades from A to F. Industry representatives don’t believe letter grades are fair and prefer more detail be included in reports to the public.
“That could be a double-edged sword,” Devore said. No rating system is perfect but many work pretty well, he said. “The main reason for the rating system is to get some general information out to the public so they can evaluate it.”
Mouton said “it’s not fair to us or other restaurants” to provide a one-word rating, which does not provide a full explanation of violations. “We are not trying to cheat the system. We want to create clarity. We are trying to fix the problem with how things are scored.”
OK, explain those inadequate cooking, hot and cold holding of food and cross-contamination violations.
The People’s Picnic provides evening meals twice a week in Norwich.
“We will not allow the establishment to tear down the foundations upon which The People’s Picnic was built,” said its Facebook post.
Norwich City Council said it would be a “last resort” to shut them down.
The People’s Picnic volunteers have served up to 60 home-cooked meals on Haymarket on Tuesdays and Saturdays for about four years.
Officers visited the stall this week and the organisers said they were told they would have to register with the council.
Karen Cully, one of the organisers, said: “We not stupid – we’re not trying to poison people and we never have. It’s volunteers cooking in their own kitchens and it’s mainly stew.
Norwich City Council said it was free for food businesses to register, it was standard procedure to visit food providers and common practise for volunteers’ home kitchens to be inspected.
Carr was forced to stump up $1760 in two fines last year for noncompliance in relation to cleaning requirements with details published on the NSW Food Authority register and reported in the Express Advocate.
“What this guy found was insignificant — silly things like paper towels,” he said.
“I think it is obviously just revenue-raising for Wyong Council and these people are being sent to nail businesses left, right and centre.”
They are then handed a slick certificate to post up in view of customers.
However Bankstown is pushing for the scheme, which is currently voluntary, to be mandated across all eligible food outlets.
A similar push is on by local councils England.
The Food Authority falls under NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair’s portfolio.
However The Express’s request for comment was directed to Food Authority chief executive Dr Lisa Szabo.
When asked whether she would support mandating Scores on Doors state wide, Dr Szabo said the authority preferred to keep it voluntary.
“Displaying a Scores on Doors certificate can be a marketing advantage for businesses that comply with food safety legislation because it can provide a point of difference from competitors,” she said.
Fifty three of 152 councils in NSW have signed up to implement the program.
In south west Sydney only Bankstown and Liverpool are currently members.
The authority’s NSW Food Safety Strategy has set a target of 75 per cent business participation by 2021.
Bankstown Council has signed up 33 retail food businesses out of about 600 this financial year.
The scheme excludes supermarkets, delicatessens or greengrocers, service stations, convenience stores, mobile food vans and temporary markets.
Which further undermines the system.
Chicken Heaven owner Paul Hong, who proudly displays a five star rating in the window of the Chester Hill takeaway, agreed the program should be compulsory.
“Yes. Based on the individual [business] keeping up their cleanliness, hygiene and all that required in the food industry,” he said.
The health authority said it plans to launch the Google Maps app designed to provide information to the public regarding its inspections of restaurants and other food establishments in the city with the aim of making such information more transparent and ensuring food safety.
The Google Maps feature will allow customers to look up online whether restaurants and food retail outlets they plan to visit follow safe food-handling procedures and have passed all health inspections, according to the department.
The department said it regularly carries out inspections of businesses that serve food but does not publish the inspection reports, adding that by launching the new app, people will be able to search for information about food establishments, including address, photos and inspection scores.
Nhat Trang, the seafood restaurant located in Nha Trang, the capital city of Khanh Hoa Province, proved no certification for food safety, Nguyen Sy Khanh, deputy chairman of the local People’s Committee, said on Wednesday.
An inspection was conducted by local officials under Khanh’s direction the same day.
Neither an authorized qualification related to food safety nor official contracts on laboring of the venue were available, according to the investigation’s result.
Such attempts were made not only in Nha Trang, but throughout the entire province of Khanh Hoa to rectify food service issues, namely price increasing by restaurateurs and lack of ethical manners in serving guests, said Tran Son Hai, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee.
The restaurant was reported to local officials by two diners on Monday after one of its staff members splashed them with leftover food after they expressed disappointment with their meal.
By mid-Feb., a separate Buffalo Wild Wings in Overland Park was inspected. Among the findings: dead flies in several of the liquor bottles and employees not washing their hands after touching raw chicken. The inspector also noticed employees remove frozen raw boneless chicken wings with gloves, drop them in the fryer, take the gloves off and put new ones on without washing their hands. The company says they addressed and corrected those violations during the inspection.
Cameron Baker said he’s still looking for an apology from Oporto after biting into what he claims was a mold-ridden burger at its Melbourne Airport store in October last year.
He said he had eaten most of the burger before realizing there was an extra condiment and took it to the manager, who had promised he would be contacted by someone.
But according to Mr Baker, he was contacted by Delaware North, which manages and delivers catering and service at various retail outlets at Melbourne Airport.
He claimed they had “accepted no responsibility for the moldy burger” and had informed him not to discuss it with anyone.
“Everybody just tried to sweep it under the rug,” he said.
“(They told me) ‘we consider this matter closed’.”
Mr Baker had been on a stopover in Melbourne on his way back to Queensland following a short stint in Hobart.
He said he’d been immediately unwell as a result and had, until recently, been unable to eat meat.
He said he was slowly starting to eat meats again.
Just as a Lenten fish fry at St. Margaret of Scotland School in Green Tree was getting into full swing on a Friday last year, the cooking crew had an unexpected visitor.
An Allegheny County Health Department food safety inspector showed up to conduct an inspection.
“You only hope and pray that they aren’t doing anything that they shouldn’t be doing,” said Cathy Militzer, the school’s principal.
No.
My kids wouldn’t eat at your school.
You train, you compel, repeat, and practice.
Just like coaching hockey.
Lent is a busy season for the volunteers working fish fries in church basements, school clubs and fire halls, and it’s a busy time of year for county food inspectors tasked with making sure the fish is stored, prepared and served safely by these seasonal operations.
Any place preparing and serving fish during Lent must have a valid permit from the county Health Department and pass an inspection, said Donna Scharding, the department’s food safety manager. Many fish fries happen in kitchens that rarely operate outside of Fridays during Lent, so those six days are some of the only times available for inspections. For other kitchens that regularly operate, like St. Margaret’s school cafeteria, Fridays in Lent can be the busiest time.
Around 23,000 inspections of eateries were carried out last year, according to official figures from the ministry of health’s food hygiene inspectorate, which is headed by chief hygiene officer Vladimir Valenta:
