The daily news: Roaches, mice, dirt: half Perth restaurants will make you sick

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Roaches, mice, dirt: half Perth restaurants will make you sick

MORE than half the restaurants and food outlets in the City of Perth failed basic hygiene inspections last year.

And other councils across the state reported poor standards at hundreds of food outlets.

In the worst cases, restaurant workers were caught preparing food in kitchens infested with rats and mice, food was exposed to dust and "foul odours" and diners were expected to use filthy toilets without toilet paper.

One restaurant did not have hot water to clean dishes or for guests to wash their hands.

Health Department bosses - who described the breaches as inexcusable - said restaurants were also keeping food for up to a month when it had a 24-hour shelf life, putting Perth diners at risk of food poisoning.

WA's leading public health expert, Mike Daube, has called for restaurants that flout health regulations to be shut down.

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Of the 700 registered food businesses in the city, 387 were issued with work orders from Perth City Council environmental health officers in the 2008-09 financial year.

Since September 2008, seven city food outlets have been prosecuted and fined a total of $63,500.

The Cloud 9 Karaoke Restaurant in East Perth was among the worst, with dead cockroaches found on a kitchen bench, and dirty walls, floors, cookers and food-handling equipment.

Inspectors said the toilets were filthy and the venue had no hot water.

Owners Eastern Legend International Group were fined $10,000 with $2301 costs in November last year.

The venue - under previous management - had been warned four times to clean up before it was prosecuted.

Eastern Legend is one of a host of companies named and shamed on a Department of Health website.

Perth City Council carries out the inspections quarterly and "health directions" are issued to premises found wanting.

Inspectors make follow-up visits to check the breaches have been rectified.

Perth City Council said it inspected 2303 food premises last financial year.

Health Department food-unit manager Stan Goodchild said he was concerned by the number of breaches, which could cause outbreaks of bacteria like salmonella and listeria.

"We've had incidents like restaurants pre-preparing toppings for food and keeping it for a month where it should have been kept for a day or two at maximum," he said.

"We've had issues where a product has been cooked and it has been a bit dry so to moisten it there has been raw material put back into the product."

Subiaco Council estimated that up to half its 250 outlets required second visits from health officers in 2008-09. The Town of Vincent said about 15 per cent of its 332 food businesses were either issued with improvement notices or were re-inspected after "unsatisfactory findings".

Joondalup Council said 72 of its 702 registered eateries failed inspections in the past two financial years and were ordered to take immediate action. .

Fremantle City Council issued eight work orders for non-compliance in 2008-09, without any prosecutions.

Prof Daube said if food outlets could not comply with basic hygiene rules they should not be in business.

"It is staggering that more than 150 years after WA's first regulations on public hygiene we are still allowing our health to be put at risk," he said.

"This is fundamental health protection.

"We need regular inspections, prompt remedial action and penalties for non-compliance that are tough enough to make food outlets sit up and take notice.

"I don't want to eat at a restaurant where people don't wash their hands, food may be contaminated, and nobody even clears away the dead cockroaches, and I suspect that most Perth residents feel the same."

Prof Daube said restaurants that continually broke hygiene rules should be forced to erect signs out the front listing their failings.

NAMED AND SHAMED PROSECUTIONS IN 2010

Japanese Kitchen, Spencer Village Food Hall, Thornlie.
Worst Breaches: Vermin on premises, failing to maintain clean and sanitary conditions. Fine: $5500
Miss Saigon, Spencer Village Food Hall, Thornlie.
Worst Breaches: Failing to protect food from vermin, dust, animals, offensive fumes and foul odours. Fine: $1200

Hong Kong Chinese Foods, Spencer Village
Food Hall, Thornlie.
Worst Breaches: Failure to protect food, eradicate vermin and to keep the business in a clean and sanitary condition.
Fine: $1500

Straits Cuisine, Spencer Village Food Hall, Thornlie.
Worst Breaches: Failure to protect food, eradicate vermin and to keep the business in a clean and sanitary condition. Fine: $1000

Ya Kwang, Spencer Village Food Hall, Thornlie.
Worst Breaches: Failure to protect food, eradicate vermin and to keep the business in a clean and sanitary condition. Fine: $7500

Dong Hiep Asian Grocery,
70 Marangaroo Drive, Marangaroo.
Worst Breaches: Six offences of failing to ensure food was stored at a safe temperature.
Fine: $3751

Hung Phat Oriental Foods, Shop E2, Koondoola Plaza Shopping Centre,
Koondoola.
Worst Breaches: 12 charges relating to
incorrect food labelling. Fine: $11,426