News
Health & Safety Update (February 2010)
'Disgraceful' Chinese Restaurant Fined £70,000
A Chinese restaurant that served customers cockroach-infested
rice was fined £70,000 by a magistrate who called its hygiene
standards 'absolutely outrageous'.
Inspectors were called to the Tai Pan restaurant in July after a
diner complained she had found a cockroach in her meal. Manchester
Magistrates Court heard that health inspectors found kitchens at
the restaurant in Upper Brook Street, Manchester 'full of
cockroaches'. They were found living in the rice steamer and dead
ones were spotted in the oil used to cook customers' food.
The restaurant's chefs were also storing chopping boards on a
floor covered in 'a thick layer of greasy dirt' and cooking with
utensils caked in old food.
In addition, they found boxes of food were used to hold toilet
doors open and many areas of the restaurant's kitchens were so
cluttered with junk they were impossible to clean.
The restaurant was shut down immediately following the
inspection but has since resolved its cockroach problem and
reopened for business.
The owners of the restaurant were found guilty of fourteen
counts of violating the Food Hygiene Act in their absence. The
owners were fined £70,000 - £5,000 for each offence - and ordered
to pay £2,500 costs saying they had shown a 'blatant and complete
disregard for the public health'.
The council said the fine was the biggest to ever have been made
against a dirty food premises in the city.
Managers of the restaurant declined to comment.
Remember, Mentor can give you advice on all food hygiene issues
as well as health and safety.