Tag Archives: Nsw Food Authority

Australian state cracks down on backyard butchers

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A New South Wales Food Authority crackdown on backyard butchers has caught unlicensed operators producing and selling smallgoods from homes in Sydney.

The NSW has been targeting illicit meat processors and confiscated almost 120 kilograms of homemade nem chua – a Vietnamese-style fermented pork.

The authority made 10 seizures of the product from illegal processors operating out of homes that were then selling the meat to butchers’ shops, restaurants and private consumers.

Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said the crackdown, which started in March, would continue.
 

Restaurants challenge ‘name and shame’ in Sydney

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a Sydney restaurant is considering legal action against the NSW Food Authority over its controversial name-and-shame website.

Satasia opened in Balmain 28 years ago and has become one of the most popular restaurants in Sydney’s inner west.

The owner, Andrew Lum, says that reputation is in tatters after his eatery was fined by the Food Authority, then included on its name-and-shame list alongside rat- and cockroach-infested restaurants.

The database was launched in July to try to improve hygiene standards.

But Mr Lum and other restaurateurs argue its format is unfair.

Several businesses, including Satasia, have consulted lawyers about suing the State Government.

But the Food Authority appears to be immune from legal action, including defamation, under section 133G of the 2003 Food Act, which states: "No liability is incurred by the state, the minister or the Food Authority, for publishing in good faith any information contained on a register."

A University of Sydney senior law lecturer, David Rolph, said,

"The Food Authority clearly takes the view that when you balance it out between the rights of the trader and the right of the public not to consume food prepared in unsafe places, public interest has to prevail."

Lavender Blue Cafe, at McMahons Point, joined the list in November after receiving a fine for a broken probe thermometer. The manager, Andrew Menczel, said: "The list is a good idea in principle but to lump everyone together is wrong. There should be clearer categories for different offences.”

New South Wales, Australia – this is your public health inspector

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Every restaurant and cafe in NSW will receive a random health inspection in the next 12 months after Government health bosses were left reeling by the results of their latest food safety crackdown.

Health and safety inspectors have issued 160 fines in four weeks. The NSW Food Authority launched a "name and shame" website in July to try to improve hygiene standards. Department officials expected to uncover kitchen nightmares but did not envisage dishing out 1000 fines to 600 businesses in 10 months.

The name-and-shame list is updated on Tuesdays and has had more than 1.5million hits since it was put on the Internet.

Live crabs in loo highlight Sydney’s name and shame

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A fish market that stored crabs in a toilet cubicle is amongst the newest addition to the NSW Government’s name and shame list, available at www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices.

Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said Jemes Fish Market on Liverpool Road, Ashfield, in the city’s inner west, was hit with two fines of $660 for storing live crabs in a toilet cubicle.

"This is one of the most outrageous cases of food storage I have ever heard about. It is unhygienic and is just not fair on consumers who pay good money for their food."

Among the other 45 additions to the website this week is Jesters at Forestville in Sydney’s north, fined $1980 for having containers of raw foods encrusted with food waste and cockroach activity, and Choy Restaurant in Belmore Road, Randwick, in Sydney’s east, which was been slapped with three fines worth $1980 for having a dead rodent in the storage area, as well as vermin activity and unclean premises.
 

The silence of the poop

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If a so-called public relations expert says the only way your hotel and restaurant would recover from a PR disaster is to get “a makeover from celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay,” just go ahead and pack it in.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that final tests on the gelato at the centre of the Coogee Bay Hotel poop scandal have come back inconclusive, with the DNA trace too weak to identify the person responsible for the murky affair.

The NSW Food Authority has declared "case closed" after completing testing on a sample of gelato served to the Whyte family at the hotel on October 5, and which was found to contain faeces.

The DNA trace was too weak to link to any one person, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said.

The hotel and the family reached a settlement last month, with the family being paid compensation believed to be about $60,000. Both parties have declined to discuss the matter in the wake of the settlement.
 

Australian ice cream positive for poop – but whose poop is it?

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The New South Wales Food Authority announced a few hours ago that a sample of the gelato allegedly served to a family at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney, Australia, has tested positive for fecal matter.

The sample, a small residual amount of gelato and faecal matter on a tissue, was provided by Stephen and Jessica Whyte this week.

The NSW Food Authority began an investigation yesterday and carried out a brief test that confirmed the nature of the provided sample.

It will now perform a more detailed DNA-based test that will determine if the fecal matter is animal or human, and the sex of the "provider."

The results of that test will not be known for up to a week. However, because of the length of time since the incident, it was unclear whether the tests could provide a clear outcome in the murky matter.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for the Whytes, the family who say they found the brown stuf, said the DNA testing of staff was a distraction.

The hotel also released a statement late yesterday that said the three-litre container from which the scoops of gelato had come had been cleared of any contamination.