Boston inspector resigns in food-safety scandal

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Keith Eddings of the Eagle-Tribune, reports the city code inspector accused of selling bogus food safety certificates to employees at restaurants and bodegas resigned on Monday, two weeks after Mayor Daniel Rivera put him on paid leave as the first of the phony certificates was found at Noelia Market on East Haverhill Street.

Also this week, the National Restaurant Association, whose ServSafe program trains and tests millions of employees in food safety nationwide, told the city it will invalidate all 497 certificates that the inspector, Jorge De Jesus, issued in Lawrence over the last five years.

De Jesus issued the licenses on behalf of the Restaurant Association, not the city, but the city requires them from merchants seeking the common victualler license needed to sell food. That made it a conflict of interest for De Jesus to issue even valid certificates in Lawrence, Assistant City Attorney Brian Corrigan said.

City Inspectional Services Director Pat Ruiz said he so far has found 25 ServSafe certificates that he believes De Jesus sold to merchants without putting them through the course and exam required for the certificates, but he said determining the validity of the certificates has been time-consuming and inconclusive. He said a better option is to invalidate all 497 certificates De Jesus issued and require the employees holding them to take the course and pass the test.

Ruiz said the Restaurant Association told him Tuesday that it is notifying the 497 certificate holders this week that their certificates are being revoked, and will offer them the food safety course without charge over the next few weeks. The association could not be reached late Tuesday, but a spokeswoman said last week that it has suspended De Jesus from the ServSafe program pending its own investigation and is taking the issue “very seriously.”

Rivera said the merchants who bought a ServSafe certificate from De Jesus without taking the required course and passing an exam are victims of De Jesus’ scam and would not be punished.

“We’re focusing on the bad actor, not the victims of this,” Rivera said.

De Jesus was a teacher and proctor in the ServSafe program and so had access to the certificates. He was charging merchants as much as $450 for a bogus certificate, Corrigan said. The course lasts just a few hours and typically costs less than $100.

The ServSafe types at the National Restaurant Association, who apparently don’t like to post on blogs like barfblog.com, sent me a note saying:

“DeJesus had an independent business and one of his activities was providing food safety classes. He used some of our ServSafe materials and signed an agreement indicating that he would use them in a responsible and ethical manner. Once we found he was not in compliance with that agreement, he was no longer authorized to use our materials. He was never hired or paid by the Association and was not our employee.”

About time: Boston restaurants could face steep fine if they don’t post food safety

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Matt Rocheleau of the Boston Globe reports that Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh is asking the City Council for approval to fine restaurants $300 per day if they fail to post their food safety inspection letter grades in their storefronts.

Restaurants and food trucks would have a year to comply after the launch of the letter-grade system being developed for restaurants citywide, though the grades would be available on the city’s website.

The city’s Inspectional Services Department has been developing the program. Officials there have said restaurants would receive either an A, B, or C grade.

The program would resemble rating systems that New York, Los Angeles, and other cities have been using since as early as the late 1990s. Locally, Newton launched a similar program in the fall that requires numerical ratings to be displayed inside restaurants.

Boston officials have previously told the Globe that letter grades will be issued to all of the city’s roughly 3,000 food establishments, including restaurants, food trucks, cafeterias, and other food vendors.

When an establishment gets a low grade, inspectors will return within 30 days to reinspect, city officials have said. If the violations are corrected, the city would bump up the grade accordingly. If the issues remain, the grade would stand until the next routine inspection, officials have said.

Restaurants would be subject to the $300 fines if they fail to post their letter grades “immediately after receipt, unobstructed, at eye-level, facing outward on an exterior-facing wall or window within five feet of the main entrance in the interior of the restaurant,” according to Walsh’s proposal to the council, which was previously reported on by the Universal Hub website.

The council is due to take up the matter at a meeting in City Hall on Wednesday.

The new rating system would not cost the city any extra money, city officials have said, because it would calculate grades based on the existing system used to inspect restaurants.

Food service workers in Mass. will be retrained after bogus certificates surface

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Keith Eddings of the Eagle-Tribune writes the U.S. National Restaurant Association on Friday agreed to train without charge about 170 employees at bodegas, restaurants and other food-service establishments in the city who received certificates in safe food handling from a consultant accused of selling bogus documents for as much as $450.

The association also said it suspended the consultant, Jorge De Jesus, whom it had hired to teach the courses and administer the exams needed to receive a so-called ServSafe certificate from the association.

De Jesus also was suspended with pay from his $51,602-a-year job as a code inspector for the city’s Inspectional Services department after a bogus ServSafe certificate found at Noelia Market on Lawrence Street was traced to him. The city shut the bodega last week.

The certificates are issued by the association, not the city, but the city requires them from merchants seeking the common victualler license needed to sell food. That made it a conflict of interest for De Jesus to issue even valid certificates in Lawrence, Assistant City Attorney Brian Corrigan said.

Restaurant politics: UK protesters throw live insects into burger joints

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Cockroaches, locusts and crickets were released into two Byron Hamburger restaurants in the United Kingdom as part of a protest against the chain’s role in an immigration swoop which saw dozens of its workers rounded up.

Activists said they released thousands of insects into two of the burger chain’s London restaurants on Friday evening.

They accused Byron of carrying out “underhand entrapment” of its workers after 35 people were removed by immigration officials earlier in July.

London Black Revs & Malcolm X Movement said in a joint Facebook statement on Saturday they had taken “affirmative action” in response to the chain’s “despicable actions in the past weeks having entrapped waiters, back of house staff and chefs in collaboration with UK Border Agency”.

“Many thousands of live cockroaches, locusts and crickets into these restaurants.

“We apologise to customers and staff for any irritation, however, we had to act as forced deportations such as this and others are unacceptable, we must defend these people and their families from such dehumanised treatment,” it continued.

The shit public health inspectors go through – Canadian edition

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Valerie MacDonald of Northumberland Today reports that a man charged with obstructing a public health inspector from entering a premises to be inspected, plus breach of probation, has been found guilty, fined $4,000, jailed for a day and put on probation.

The judgement issued by Justice of the Peace Patricia McHenry against William David Barth of Colborne was under the Health Protection and Prevention Act and Provincial Offences Act and took place earlier this month in a Cobourg courtroom.

The offences dated back to Dec. 14, 2015.

Haliburton, Kawartha and Pine Ridge District Health Unit Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lynn Noseworthy reported the case to the board of health last February and note that in any subsequent cases public health inspectors would apply for a warrant to “gain entry with police assistance.”

Asked about the case, local health unit spokesperson Bill Eekhoff provided this statement:

“The Health Unit works in partnership with local food premise operators to ensure they follow proper protocols and regulations when it comes to food safety. The Health Unit has a legal responsibility to ensure food being prepared, served, sold, or provided to the public is not going to pose a health or safety risk.

“In cases where food operators are not complying with the legislation or obstructing the work of public health inspectors, the Health Unit may have to take legal action to ensure food safety regulations are followed so that people’s health is not put at risk.”

In addition to the hefty fine for obstructing entry, Barth was ordered to serve a single day in jail, and was put on probation for a year.

At least it was cooked: Australian bakery admits selling cockroach in loaf

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Douglas Powell

A Bakers Delight store in Brisbane has indicated that it will plead guilty to selling a loaf of bread with a cockroach in it, and six other breaches of the food laws.

Bakers Delight in Toombul shopping centre was charged with selling the loaf of omega 3 wholemeal with chia on March 7 last year.

Brisbane City Council officers laid the charges after customer Judith Davis allegedly found the roach in her loaf which was baked in-store.

Last week, Brisbane Magistrate’s Court was told the franchising company Bakers Delight Holdings intended to enter a plea of guilty when the case returned to court on October 20.

Health inspector Stephen Thomson alleges in his complaint filed in court that the store had an infestation of cockroaches in March 2015 and the owners “failed to prevent and remove” them.

Fancy food ain’t safe food: Bolton Excellency Centre admits mice infestation and contaminated ingredients failures

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Douglas Powell

While in the land of funny accents, Ian Proctor of the Bolton News reports a manager has admitted failing to deal with a mouse infestation, dirty fixtures and contaminated ingredients in the kitchen at a luxury wedding venue.

At Bolton Magistrates’ Court, Taymure Khan — a director of the Bolton Excellency Centre in Carlton Street, Bolton — pleaded guilty to six offences under food safety and hygiene regulations.

The prosecution was brought by Bolton Council following an environmental health inspection in March, 2015.

Khan, 48, admitted failing to comply with requirements to ensure that food premises were kept clean including shelving, floor coverings, a wall ledge in a large kitchen, floor covering behind a freezer, cupboards in the small kitchen used for crockery and cutlery storage.

The manager also failed to ensure that all articles which came into contact with food were effectively cleaned and disinfected, including wicker baskets used to store food, a Robot Coupe machine, containers used to store spices, a hot cupboard, cutlery and crockery.

And the court was told that Khan failed to stop a mouse infestation and did not alter a gap under a fire door and an open drain in the kitchen which would allow pests to enter.

Another two offences relate to the failure to protect seven sacks of onions, rice, two bags of flour, one bag of caster sugar and Chinese salt, semolina and milk powder from contamination by mice and continuing to offer the ruined ingredients for use.

Khan will return to Bolton Magistrates’ Court on October 10 to be sentenced.

Sydney restaurant curing meat outdoors on clothes hangers

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Douglas Powell

A Chinese restaurant in Sydney has been filmed curing their meat on clothes hangers outdoors near garbage bins and a busy major road.

Hung Cheung Restaurant sits underneath Sydney Airport’s flight path at Marrickville, in the city’s Inner West.

The restaurant’s methods of curing pork belly came to A Current Affair’s attention after several nearby residents sent pictures to the show’s producers.

When A Current Affair travelled to the restaurant, the pork could be seen hanging on clothes hangers in the rear of the premises.

The restaurant’s manager attempted to deny that the meat belonged to them, instead claiming it was a tenant who lived above the restaurant curing their pork.

However, hearing what was happening, the restaurant’s upstairs tenant came outside and denied the meat was his.

“No man, it’s theirs,” the tenant said.

Tipped off by A Current Affair, food inspectors from the newly-formed Inner West Council arrived.

One minute later, the meat was removed from the clothes hangers.

Inner West Council had identified issues that were non-compliant with food safety standards. Air drying food outside was not one of the offences.

“Breaches of the Food Act were identified and enforcement action including issuing an on the spot fine and serving an improvement notice have been undertaken, on issues identified as non-compliant with food safety standards,” a spokesperson for Inner West Council told A Current Affair.

“These however were not related to the allegation of air drying food.”

Vaccinate: Hawaii Baskin-Robbins workers harassed, business crippled over Hepatitis A

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Marisa Yamane of KHON2 reports the Baskin-Robbins at Waikele Center used to be the busiest in the state.

Now, it’s the emptiest.

“That’s why we only have one person working now, because it’s really that slow,” Baskin-Robbins employee Erika Espiritu said.

On July 12, the Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) announced that anyone who ate at Baskin-Robbins at Waikele Center between June 17 and July 3, 2016 (actual dates: June 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 30, and July 1 and 3), may have been exposed to hepatitis A.

That’s because one of the workers there caught the virus.

Since then, business has dropped 75 percent.

“The toughest part is having to take in all the harassment because I worked the — I might tear up — I worked the next morning and people would call and say mean stuff, and you just have to take it in, because you can’t control what people think,” Espiritu said.

She said people have told them they want to sue the store, or that they want the store to pay for their family to get vaccinated.

In fact, state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said the store is “not at fault. They should not be looked down upon. This could happen to any food establishment out there.”

“We don’t deserve to be harassed or slandered because it’s not fair. We didn’t ask for our employee to have the infection, you know,” Espiritu said.

About time: Pittsburgh unveils updated restaurant inspection stickers

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Douglas Powell

The Allegheny County Health Department is making it easier for restaurant patrons to get a glimpse of what’s going on in the kitchen before deciding where to eat.

On Monday, the county unveiled new inspection stickers for restaurant doors that include QR codes — two-dimensional bar codes — so that people with smartphones can scan the codes and get instant access to a restaurant’s inspection reports.

The decals — which include green stickers for “Inspected and Permitted” facilities; yellow “Consumer Alert” stickers for when conditions may pose a health risk; and red “Closed” stickers for facilities shut down for serious health code violations until fixes are made — also have been redesigned in an easier-to-read format.

“The updated placards will provide county residents with a clear and easy-to-read status of the facilities they’re considering when making dining choices, while also providing easy access to the reports,” health department director Karen Hacker said in a statement.

Restaurant inspection reports have been available for residents to view online using a search engine on the health department’s website since 2007. The QR codes will provide a direct link to the search page.

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