Tag Archives: canberra

Cockroach toppings land pizza shop in court

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Blaming the staff is never a good strategy.

But that’s exactly what the operator of a Domino’s pizza joint in Canberra, Australia, did while pleading guilty to four breaches of ACT food safety laws after cockroaches were repeatedly found on takeaway pizzas and pasta.

In an interview with authorities, the operator admitted the restaurant battled a cockroach problem for six months. He also accused staff of failing to follow the store’s cleaning regime and of falsifying completed cleaning records.

The prosecution has said three unrelated customers, on three separate occasions, raised the issue with ACT Health in April and May last year.

Documents tendered before Magistrate Grant Lalor yesterday revealed the restaurant was inspected three times in May after the customers complained of vermin in their food.

Authorities were first alerted to the infestation when a customer photographed a slice of barbecue chicken pizza containing a cockroach; another separate but similar complaint was made the next day.

The following month a public health officer inspected the Cape Street restaurant.

A statement of facts said the officer "found the premises to have a large number of non-compliant issues" and ordered pest control treatment take place within a week.

I make my own pizza.

Cockroaches take over Australia restaurant, force closure

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Cockroaches took over the kitchen and dining areas of a Canberra restaurant, spilled on to customers, ran across food preparation areas and left feces behind counters and fridges.

Z Brasserie manager Nicole Maddock told the Canberra Times, ”[When] eating staff meals we’d have cockroaches running across our plates.” Fifteen staff have lost their jobs due to the closure.

The restaurant said the landlord, the Hyperdome Shopping Centre, had failed to fix the problem.

Z Brasserie owner Debbie Wentworth-Shields said after months of battling centre management the issue came to a head last week when she removed a picture from a wall and inadvertently showered a customer’s child with cockroaches.
 

Salmonella soars in Canberra

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Salmonella infection rates are skyrocketing across the ACT where more than 200 cases were officially notified in each of the past two years.

The ACT is the Australian Capital Territory, which is sorta like Washington, D.C. in the U.S. Canberra is the federal seat where lots of the federal food safety folks are located.

Apparently they’re barfing with salmonella.

The Canberra Times reports that as the ACT Government considers ”naming and shaming” restaurants and other food businesses which breach food safety standards, it can be revealed there have already been 31 notified cases of salmonella in the ACT this year.

Infections usually linked to poor food hygiene were reported 217 times in the ACT last year and 221 times in 2009.

It is not known what proportion of infections were linked to restaurant food.

There were 131 cases in the ACT in 2008, up from 101 cases in 2000.

It is a staggering increase considering just 18 ACT cases were notified in 1991 and actual infection rates are believed to be much higher this year because many cases are never officially notified to authorities.

The Canberra Times revealed on Saturday that ACT public health officials had issued dozens of warnings to Canberra restaurants and food outlets over the past two years for breaching food safety laws. Unlike other Australian jurisdictions, which publish online registers of businesses which fail hygiene standards, the ACT does not name offending eateries.

Health Minister Katy Gallagher said this week the Government was considering the most effective method for publicly naming food businesses which failed to comply with food safety standards.