Canberra restaurants put on notice over hygiene

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDSep 9 2010

According to health authorities some of the ‘shabbier’ Canberra restaurants have been put on notice after a court quadrupled the fines imposed on an inner north eatery caught preparing food in “Third World” conditions.

According to ACT’s chief food inspector there has been discontent among these owners after Dickson's Tak Kee Roast was fined just $1,500 in June for its extreme unhygienic conditions. But Director of ACT Health's Health Protection Service John Woollard and his inspectors had appealed to the Supreme Court and the fine was increased to nearly $7,000. The restaurant was fined $1,500 by Special Magistrate Ken Cush in June, for three food handling offences. ACT Health has described an inner north Canberra restaurant's food safety breach as one of the worst it has seen.

Mr Woollard said, “It certainly will send a message to those few proprietors in the Canberra area who perhaps aren't doing the right thing around food safety - that it is taken seriously and if they're caught, they'll be dealt with appropriately in the courts.”