UK restaurant with lousy hygiene hit with £10,000 court bill

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Dirty and unhygienic conditions have landed bosses of two Stourbridge food businesses with a combined court bill of more than £10,000.

Investigations by environment health officers uncovered a series of hygiene failings at both Herbs and Spices takeaway in Oldswinford and Hayes Cafe in Lye.

Dudley Council led the prosecution against the businesses, which both received a hygiene rating of zero from their inspections.

The October 2014 inspection of Herbs and Spices takeaway, in Hagley Road, found dirty and defective equipment and dirty floors, ceilings and worktops.

They also found staff had failed to protect food from a risk of contamination, procedures to deal with pests were inadequate and food safety hazards had not been assessed.

Owner Muhammed Ahmad pleaded guilty to seven offences under the food hygiene regulations at Dudley Magistrates Court on Thursday, July 2.

He was fined £4,669, ordered to pay costs of £2,052.60 and a victim surcharge of £67. The court heard improvements had been made and the premises now has a satisfactory hygiene rating of three out of five.

Hawaii hires new vendor to build online restaurant database after spending $170k on failed system

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Douglas Powell

One year after requiring restaurants to display safety inspection placards for their patrons, and after spending nearly $170,000, the Hawaii State Department of Health is going back to the drawing board to launch a restaurant database the public can access online.

After three years of technical problems with a former technology contractor, the state is now working to get its data to a new vendor that will build a website that will let people search for restaurants and see their health inspection ratings.

“We were having so many problems with the previous vendor that we never opened it up,” the state Department of Health’s environmental health program manager, Peter Oshiro, told PBN.

A new multi-year agreement between Charlotte, North Carolina-based Digital Health Department Inc. and the state Department of Health to maintain, store and report electronic restaurant inspection data should be finalized within the next few days, he said.

Under the proposed agreement , the state Department of Health would pay $158,000 to create, install, set up and maintain the department’s electronic restaurant inspection and public reporting process. The department would then pay $60,000 a year for Digital Health Department to maintain the system.

“It’s going to be an open portal where the public can look up their favorite restaurant, and actually open up that restaurant’s file, where it’ll show their restaurant placard status, whether it’s green, yellow or red,” Oshiro told PBN.

Allstate using big data to help ID food problems in Chicago

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Which of the city’s 15,000 restaurants and vendors are most likely to be the site of foodborne illnesses and should be targeted for a closer look? How can the city identify which establishments likely sell untaxed cigarettes? Which trees should be trimmed to minimize damage to power lines when a storm rolls through?

Allstate, the Northbrook-based insurer, is tapping big data to try to answer those questions.

Earlier this year, Chicago began using a predictive model that Allstate’s quantitative research team helped develop to improve restaurant inspections. It combines and mines data the city already collected or were readily available to more quickly identify restaurants that pose a greater risk for foodborne illness and thus help prioritize inspections.

Tom Schenk, Chicago’s chief data officer, said the city soon planned to issue its own announcement about the food-inspection data program and declined to comment further. His Twitter feed, @ChicagoCDO, on May 14 tweeted a link to a report titled “Food Inspection Forecasting: Optimizing Inspections With Analytics.” Allstate’s participation was cited in the report.

Historically, each Chicago food inspector is responsible for nearly 470 restaurants. Among those, more than 15 percent of inspections result in at least one critical violation. So random inspections might not be the best way to prevent foodborne illnesses.

Allstate’s quantitative research staffers working on the city food project included lead analyst Stephen Collins. His connections with the nonprofit Civic Consulting Alliance, which was also credited in the “Food Inspection Forecasting” report, led to the project with the city.

Initially Allstate scientists asked “what is it we want to try to predict if we were trying to build a predictive model?” recalled Smart. “The aim was to identify critical violations much sooner, so what kind of variables or information would” foreshadow risks at food establishments?

In 2013, Chicago also began monitoring Twitter for posts that include the words “food poisoning” by people who identify themselves as Chicagoans. That initiative continues, Schenk recently told WBEZ.

UK coffee shop hit with £40K fine for hygiene offences

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Douglas Powell

A Berkshire coffee shop has been fined almost £40,000 for breaches of food safety and hygiene.

The owners of Coffea in Thames Street in Windsor were sentenced for 13 offences relating to food safety, hygiene, and health and safety matters.

Inspectors found kitchen areas were dirty, with build-up of grease and food debris, and had not been cleaned for a considerable time.

The premises had internal structural damage to floor and wall tiles and splash guards, meaning they could not be cleaned and had accumulated dirt.

A food store room had a damaged ceiling, meaning dirt and shedding particles could contaminate food.

There was a build-up of grease and dirt on window openings in the kitchens, which also failed to prevent the entry of insects.

Food was at risk of contamination from rodents, with evidence of gnawed shell eggs and pasta; entry points found in ceiling holes and droppings discovered on store room shelves.

There were no management systems in place to ensure rodent control, stock rotation, food temperature control or food room maintenance and cleanliness.

The inspectors said there was imminent danger to the health of both customers and staff – and the director of owning company Shabaneh Ltd, Fred Yaghoubi, agreed to voluntarily close the premises.

Gas issues? Australian restaurant closed after wire in fried rice

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Douglas Powell

A popular Chinese restaurant in Brisbane was shut down after a woman suffered severe throat trauma when she swallowed part of a stainless steel pot scrubber in her fried rice late last month.

Maxine Dosen was dining with her father at Bamboo Basket Chinese Restaurant, in the Portside precinct at Hamilton, when she ordered a small serving of fried rice.

“It all happened so quickly,” Ms Dosen said.

“I put this fried rice in my mouth and suddenly felt something sharp, like a prawn shell, go down my throat.

“I tried to bring it back up my throat and pulled this long, curly thing out of my mouth and put it down on a red napkin.”

She said stretched out on the table was a 4cm piece metal stretched. She also coughed up several metal shavings.

Having a history of digestive issues and bowel operations, Ms Dosen was raced to hospital as her doctors feared the metal may have entered her bowel.

Ms Dosen ended up with severe oesophageal scratching.

The injury developed into a serious infection, causing her to lose her voice.

A Brisbane City Council spokeswoman told The Courier-Mail an immediate on-site investigation was conducted at the restaurant.

“Council has issued the business with an immediate suspension of the restaurant’s food business licence and will continue to investigate the alleged stainless steel contaminant,” the spokeswoman said.

“The business will remain closed until council is satisfied the restaurant does not pose a safety risk to the public.”

A sign on the front door to the restaurant yesterday cited “unforeseen gas issues” as the reason for the closure and hoped to restore operations shortly.

Stale bread lands over 180 children in hospital in Pakistan?

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The children sheltered by Pakistan Sweet Homes (PSH), a project of Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM), were rushed to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for medical treatment. Some of the kids were also taken to Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi for treatment.

PIMS spokesperson Dr Ayesha Isani said around 185 kids suffering from diarrhea were brought to the hospital’s emergency department at around 10am in the morning. Sixty of them were admitted due to their serious condition while the rest were discharged after preliminary treatment. Ten children were still admitted to the hospital when this report was filed on Sunday evening.

The spokesperson confirmed that the children fell ill as a result of food poisoning. “About 60 per cent suffered from food poisoning but there condition is now stable,” she told the media on Sunday afternoon.

PSH Patron-in-Chief Zamurd Khan told said the children were served bread and milk for breakfast and said they were investigating the issue behind the mass sickness.

PBM Managing Director Barrister Abid Waheed Sheikh said there were around 400 children at the orphanage. “Children who had no symptoms of food poisoning were also taken to Pims and the Holy Family Hospital for a checkup,” he said.

Jim’s Burgers in California shut down after repeated health threats

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Raw chicken and meat patties stored at unsafe temperatures, a clogged floor sink with standing water and dead cockroaches were discovered at Jim’s Burgers in Pico Rivera during an inspection that ultimately led to the restaurant’s permanent closure last month.

Los Angeles County Public Health Department officials said the June 17 decision to revoke the burger restaurant’s health permit was the result of repeated food temperature violations — a major public health threat — but over the course of six prior routine inspections the restaurant at 4549 S. Rosemead Blvd. never had its permit suspended for those problems.

“The Department has worked in earnest with the owners to rectify repeat violations due to unsanitary conditions,” said county health officials in a statement issued less two weeks before revoking the restaurant’s permit.

Despite logging some of the highest health code violations in the county, the restaurant was only closed once for failing to comply with letter grade posting requirements under a system that allows too many facilities to operate with unsafe and unsanitary conditions and misleads the public about what’s actually going on behind kitchen doors, according to a Los Angeles News Group review of 21 months of food facility inspection data.

France goes QR code in Paris and Avignon

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Douglas Powell

For every food hygiene official control, an inspection report is issued and indicates if the restaurant is compliant with food hygiene regulations. These official controls are here to ensure that food placed on the market is safe to eat. In case of non-compliances, corrective actions must be taken by the person who owns or manages the business.

Article 45 of the newly enacted French Law on the future of agriculture, food and forestry specifies that the results of official controls shall be made public in accordance with modalities which will be laid down by specific regulations, this is the transparency initiative.

This means food businesses’ compliance with the legal requirements will be visible to anyone, for the benefit of consumers but also of food business operators. That initiative will be a strong incentive for the food industry to continuously improve the sanitary conditions prevailing in their establishments, and will consequently allow them to be rewarded with positive outcomes of official controls.

Now the operators can download a QR-Code to display voluntarily on their storefront vitrine about this scheme. This QR-Code will be also given by the inspection services.

Restaurant grading: 15 years in Toronto, 5 years in New York

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Douglas Powell

It’s just a snapshot in time, but it’s a minimal tool to hold food providers accountable.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports that restaurants are performing better on inspection and are cleaner than ever:
• Nearly 60% percent of restaurants now earn an A on their initial inspection;
• Letter grading has vastly diminished the public health risks associated with dining out; there has been a 23 percent drop in violations from the peak in 2012; and,
• 91 percent of New Yorkers approve of restaurant grading, 88 percent use grades in making their dining decisions and 76 percent feel more confident eating in an A-grade restaurant.

But it got an A: Tarheel Q outbreak sickens 216 with Salmonella

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Health officials now say 216 people have reported becoming ill after eating at Tarheel Q in Lexington, which was linked last week to a Salmonella outbreak.

Seven lawsuits have been filed against the barbecue restaurant, according to the Davidson County Clerk of Court’s office.

Tarheel Q voluntarily closed last week and said it would reopen Sunday, after customers who had eaten there got sick with symptoms consistent with Salmonella infection, most between June 16 and June 21. The restaurant, on U.S. 64, was still closed Monday morning.

Calls to the restaurant were not answered Monday.

A barbecue sample and a sample from a patient both tested positive for Salmonella, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a health inspections website linked to the county health department site, Tarheel Q was last inspected June 3 and received a score of 98, an A grade.

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