Food poison's hall of shame revealed
Fiona Hudson and Ashley Gardiner
The Herald Sun
January 14, 2012
HE Health Department has named nine food outlets linked to serious food poisoning outbreaks, months after the event.
Officials have also belatedly added five more businesses to Victoria's "name and shame" database of food proprietors convicted and fined over food safety breaches.
The disclosures follow a Herald Sun investigation into the failure of local and state authorities to adequately alert the public to potential dining risks.
The nine businesses named as having been investigated over food poisoning scares since October 2010 include a major city hotel, a CBD Indian restaurant, and two regional hotels.
Dodgy food's dirty secret aired
Health Department spokesman Graeme Walker stressed contaminated ingredients, not deficiencies in food handling, had caused many of the nine outbreaks.
The five firms added to the register weren't linked to outbreaks, but were prosecuted by councils in the Magistrates' Court for other food safety breaches.
The most recent additions include gogogo Go to Noodle in Torquay, Poppy's Thai Restaurant in Camberwell, the Gourmet Dumpling Restaurant in Glenferrie Rd, Malvern, and the Jia and Yoyogi shops in the Eastland food court.
The owner of Poppy's Thai Camberwell said it was unfair his business had only just been added to the register after its conviction in October.
Guan Chen said he'd made a major effort, including getting new staff, since he was fined $3000, and problems had been fixed months ago.
The owners of Malvern's Gourmet Dumpling Restaurant were fined $20,000 last August. Proprietor Yi Zhang said he, too, had done much to improve his business since, and he felt it unfair that he'd be listed for another 12 months.
Torquay's gogogo Go to Noodle has closed since a conviction was recorded last October. A new, unrelated business has opened at the address.
Acting Premier Peter Ryan said yesterday he was confident "we have appropriate standards and mechanisms in place.
"If it is that you have situations like this arise, then I think there are measures there available to be able to investigate them, and deal with those who are guilty of any breach," he said.