Valentino Pizza Cafe owner Mahdi Al Haiery fined $10,500 for ‘grubby, disgraceful’ store, selling pizza topped with broken glass
A pizza topped with glass was among food standard breaches which cost the owner of a “grubby and disgraceful” northern suburbs shop more than $10,000 in fines. See the photos
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The owner of a suburban cafe that served a pizza topped with broken glass to a customer has been fined $10,500 for its “grubby and disgraceful” approach to food safety.
On Thursday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court convicted Valentino Pizza Cafe owner Mahdi Al Haiery for breaching SA’s food hygiene standards 18 times in four months.
The state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, noted those breaches were committed not by Al Haiery himself, but by staff members he had since terminated.
However, she said responsibility rested with him as the Valley View store’s owner, and spared him the maximum $120,000 fine only because he has spent $30,000 bringing it up to code.
“It’s concerning that it took both multiple visits by, and notices from, council inspectors to bring about change … (the store) was grubby and disgraceful,” she said.
“It was pretty obvious there was a real problem that you needed to involve yourself with to get things back to a position where the store was operating properly.
“I accept you are apologetic and unlikely to offend again … you will be aided in that by, no doubt, very frequent visits from the council in future.”
Al Haiery, 21, was originally charged with 27 breaches, but confessed to 18 in a plea bargain deal with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield.
Inspectors found mouldy food, including oysters, in a store that had “visible grime”, dirty fixtures, holes in walls and ceilings and a lack of pest control.
Raw and cooked foods were stored together or uncovered, kitchen equipment was mouldy or contaminated by metal shavings.
Even after council intervention, the store delivered a pizza that had three pieces of broken glass among its toppings – the customer almost consumed two of them.
In sentencing on Thursday, Judge Hribal said that incident was “obviously” the most concerning of all.
“Food hygiene practices are of the utmost importance so that the public is protected and does not become sick,” she said.
“It ought to have confidence in the food it is buying, particularly these days when food is being ordered online and customers don’t get to see it before it arrives.”
She said there was “no doubt” Al Haiery had expended considerable “time, effort and money” to improve the store, including eliminating all glassware inside the business.
“You have brought your pizza bar up to an appropriate state – but that’s really the state it should have been in from the beginning,” she said.
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