In late Jan. 2016, a bakery in Sydney’s south was closed as customers started reporting Salmonella illness.
On Monday, the owners of the Box Village Bakery, Thi Thu Ngo and Hung Son Le, were fined a total of $122,000 and ordered to pay $7,199 professional costs after each was convicted of ten breaches of the Food Act 2003.
The owners the Sylvania bakery at the centre of a Salmonella outbreak that affected more than 200 people, each pleaded guilty to five breaches of selling unsafe food, and five breaches of failing to meet food safety standards and were fined $61,000 each.
There were 203 documented cases of people who had presented to hospitals and other health care providers with symptoms of gastroenteritis including vomiting, diarrhea and fever after consuming bakery items such as chicken rolls and salads that were linked back to the bakery.
During its investigation the NSW Food Authority issued a Prohibition Order requiring the business to cease operations.
The business was only permitted to reopen and trade after it completed extensive work to ensure the bakery had been thoroughly cleaned and fully compliant with food safety laws.
The NSW Food Authority also conducted skills and knowledge testing with staff and management of the business to improve their food safety knowledge and conducted a number of inspections of the premises subsequent to its reopening to ensure it continued to be fit to trade.
CEO of the NSW Food Authority Dr Lisa Szabo said the court result served as a reminder to all food businesses and individuals as to why food safety systems are crucial.
