Diners in the dark over dirty food

Undercooked chicken, cockroaches in the kitchen, ‘‘foreign matter’’ in food and falsified records: Food outlets in Hamilton have been reprimanded for a multitude of misdemeanours.

However, the agency charged with making sure the city’s cafes, restaurants and takeaway bars are fit to eat in – the Hamilton City Council – is not making it easy for customers to find out which businesses may have, at least temporarily, put their health at risk.

And it could be some time before they can.

Some local authorities such as the Auckland Council make it easy for customers to find out whether the establishment at which they are about to sit down to dinner or pick up their takeaways has received an A, B, C, D or E grade, with a large certificate on the wall and a searchable database on the council’s website. However, Hamilton has no such system. The reason, explains environmental health manager Peter McGregor, is because the council is waiting for the Ministry for Primary Industries to introduce a nationwide grading system for food outlets.

There was no point in going though ‘‘all the time and effort and resources’’ of setting up and establishing a bylaw if, within years or even less, it was overridden by the ministry’s new guidelines.

But if the council is waiting for the Government to make the first move, the Government doesn’t look like it will be moving anytime soon.

New Zealand Food Safety’s food regulation director Paul Dansted confirmed there were ‘‘no plans’’ to create a mandatory national grading scheme for food outlets, although the Food Act 2014 allowed for the development of one.

‘‘This would require a formal development process including public consultation, agreement across all New Zealand councils and ministerial approval.’’

In response to a request made under the Official Information Act, the Hamilton council released details of the two caterers, eight delicatessens, 10 takeaways, 13 cafes, nine licensed premises, three mobile shops and a greengrocer who were issued with what it termed ‘‘intervention notices’’ – orders to comply in relation to breaches of hygiene, food safety and record keeping – for the 2018/19 financial year.

It is a snapshot of an industry faced by a variety of challenges from without and within, from incursions and infestations to what could best be described as a dereliction of duty.

Some of the businesses that have creased the brows of the council inspectors may come as a surprise to their customers.

The Helm Bar & Kitchen, a popular pub in Ulster St, was issued with an improvement notice after cockroaches were found ‘‘in all areas’’. Subsequent scrutiny found the hardy critters had been given short shrift by staff.

At ChicKing in the Centre Place shopping mall food court, the chicken was not cooked properly. The filling in some of the pies at Jesters at The Base was past its useby date. Mouse droppings were found inside the Choice Convenience Store in Glenview.

The Prolife Foods packing and distribution centre in Pukete, where food brands like Mother Earth and Alison’s Pantry are processed and packaged, was pinged for ‘‘foreign matter in food’’. When pressed to elaborate, the council revealed the matter in question was a piece of material that may have been part of an armband used by a worker to secure his or her sleeves.

The Volcano Bar & Grill in Hood St were given a growling for falsifying their food temperature records. The chicanery was easily identified because some of the recorded information was for dates in the future.

False records on the cooking of poultry, reheating and cooling foods was the sin of Master House Chinese Restaurant. The fact the records were identical for several weeks led to the simple spotting of that subterfuge.

Town and Country Food and Oriental Court in Victoria St and the Hillcrest Mini Supermarket – which has now closed – were similarly warned over neglecting their recording of temperatures, poultry cooking and staff training.

Meanwhile, Xiang Style Restaurant in London St was directed not to accept food, particularly chicken, from their supplier.

The Helm’s owner Joe Te Paa said the cockroach incursion was now well in their past and, once detected the hardy insects had been swiftly wiped out with the assistance of staff from hygiene firm

Ecolab.

‘‘Once they get in they get stuck in. They seem to come in with some of the deliveries. They might be hiding in a pallet of wine that we get from Auckland or something like that. Ecolab did a really good job of getting rid of them for us.’’

ChicKing owner Amal Dev said the issue his store faced was a one-off and subsequent council inspections had found no problems. Their chicken was cooked at 90 degrees Celsius, well above the minimum council requirement of 75C, and customers had nothing to fear.

Jesters franchise business manager Mike Connell said the out-of-date pie filling had been thrown out on the day it was discovered and a subsequent MPI inspection had found the business to be ‘‘highly compliant’’.

‘‘Food safety is paramount . . . I have followed it up myself. There is absolutely no cause for alarm.

‘‘People need to be able to trust where they eat.’’

Town and Country manager Chan Heng said council staff had made some helpful suggestions on food monitoring and these were now being followed. The manager of the Choice Convenience Store, who asked not to be named, said the mice in his store had been eliminated with poison bait.

Prolife Foods chief executive Andrew Smith said a thorough investigation had been made into the discovery of the small piece of material found inside a Mother Earth Baked Oaty Slice bar.

The 30mm piece of a paper-based armband was not a hazard to anyone’s health.

The staff at Prolife were no longer using armbands, he said.

‘‘Human error can occasionally happen. We look at situations like this as an opportunity to review and improve our processes.’’

Xiang Style Restaurant owner Xian Peng said they had changed their food supplier, who had supplied the business under previous management at the behest of the council.

‘‘We were not allowed to buy chicken from Fishy Food because it was only registered as a food supplier to customers instead of a supplier to another food supplier.’’

Not everyone at the reprimanded food outlets wanted the public to know of their mistakes and misdemeanours. A manager at the Volcano Bar and Grill called Tony refused to give his last name and declared the details of the council’s warning letter were private, before promptly hanging up.

McGregor reckoned Hamiltonians could have ‘‘complete faith’’ that he and a small team of inspectors were maintaining a vigilant eye on the city’s food businesses. Customers were generally quick to complain if their food was not up to standard.

The council fielded 52 such complaints in the 2018/19 financial year.

The majority of the 65 notices sent to those businesses related to the ‘‘nonpayment of verification fees’’ – administration issues such as unpaid registrations. Michelle van Straalen, who holds the job title ‘‘official information adviser’’ in the council’s legal services team, opted to keep the names of those businesses a secret.

‘‘This information has been withheld . . . in that release would be likely to unreasonably prejudice the commercial position of a person who supplied or is the subject of the information. Council have not found there to be any public interest to outweigh the withholding of this information.’’