Restaurant owners pleads guilty to selling unsafe food

%asset_thumbnail_alt

On 1 April 2016, Crown Law represented Queensland Health in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court in a prosecution under the Food Act 2006 for one of the largest outbreaks of food poisoning in Queensland.

Over a weekend in January 2015, over 100 customers contracted Salmonellosis after eating at the Chin Chin Chinese Restaurant at Springwood. The defendants who were a husband and wife partnership were each charged with three offences of selling unsafe food pursuant to section 35 (2) of the Act. They pleaded guilty to each of the charges.

Poor food handling practices allowed Salmonella to spread throughout the restaurant’s kitchen contaminating cutting boards, the freezer, preparation sinks, dish cloths, and various other food items included deep fried ice cream balls, diced ham, squid and chicken. The kitchen had a practice of leaving egg wash out on the bench while making deep fried icecream balls and for some hours during lunch service. That practice allowed any Salmonella present to grow exponentially in the egg wash. Most of the customers who fell ill had eaten the deep fried icecream balls. Other unsafe practices included that the kitchen staff did not know how to use the kitchen sanitiser which meant that any Salmonella was able to spread, and the hand wash basin was obstructed with kitchen utensils preventing staff from using it to wash their hands.

The victims suffered symptoms such as nausea, headaches, vomiting, stomach cramps and fever and was so severe that approximately fifty customers required hospitalisation. Logan Hospital opened a special ward to deal with the outbreak.

Initially, the business had its food licence suspended and then subsequently cancelled by Logan City Council.

The defendants were fined $30 000 each, ordered to pay the analyst fees of $41 914, and professional costs of $500 each. The presiding Magistrate remarked that the penalty would have been much higher if they had a greater capacity to pay.