22 Brisbane restaurants fined for food safety breaches in 2019-20

From harbouring pests and rodents, to storing food unsafely and even operating without proper handwashing facilities, 22 Brisbane restaurants have been slapped with over $300,000 in fines. SEE THE LIST

Filthy eateries across Brisbane have been harbouring rodents and pests, storing food unsafely and even operating without proper handwashing facilities, according to shocking details of food safety fines that have been issued to some of Brisbane’s most popular restaurants.

The Courier Mail can exclusively reveal that Brisbane City Council last financial year issued almost $400,000 in fines to 22 businesses who were found to be in breach of the Food Safety Act.

Brisbane City restaurant shut down, fined $15k over cockroaches

Live and dead mice, weevils, dead cockroaches found in bakery

George’s Paragon Seafood Restaurant in Eagle St fined $15k for cockroaches in kitchen

The fines comprise 268 individual offences spanning from “unsafe food” to unhygienic workplaces, with animals and pests found at 21 of the 22 guilty locations.

Council said it could not release the names of the involved businesses for legal reasons.

However, court documents reveal that culprits include: the ever-popular Punjabi Palace in South Brisbane; long-running Camp Hill restaurant Pan Thai; The Mill on Constance, which has since closed; and Eagle Farm TAFE cafeteria kitchen, which has previously catered for the Commonwealth Games.

Punjabi Palace in South Brisbane

Council inspectors found living and dead cockroaches at Punjabi Palace during an inspection in 2018 that followed complaints from diners of stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea, after eating at the Melbourne St restaurant, Brisbane Magistrates Court heard.

The restaurant was fined $16,000 for 14 offences on October 17 last year.

Pan Thai, at Camp Hill Bowls club, was found to have rat droppings in its kitchen and food storage area in august 2018 and was fined $20,000 in March this year.

Another eatery in Kangaroo Point was guilty of 38 infringements, the most of any restaurant, which amounted to $30,000 in penalties.

Pan Thai Restaurant located at Camp Hill Bowls Club

A Carindale business was found to be operating with unacceptable handwashing facilities, while a second business in the suburb was slapped with $30,800 in fines – the largest infraction for the period – in April for its food storage, hygiene, cleanliness, and maintenance practices.

Evidence of animals and pests was found at all three businesses.

A spokesman said council enforced “strict food safety standards” and urged residents to report any concerns about food handling or storage or restaurant cleanliness.

“Any complaint made to Council about food safety is followed up with an on-site inspection and food businesses are not allowed to continue operating if they present a health risk to the public,” the spokesman said.

Amonpan Sirattanapusitakon, director of Pan Thai Restaurant, outside court earlier this year

“This standard has not changed during the COVID pandemic. We must always remain diligent with food safety to prevent illness.”

The spokesman claimed that the number of food-businesses operating with “evidence of rodents or cockroaches” had decreased over the past five years.

“In 2015-16 there were 174 cases where a Council food audit discovered that a business was contravening the Food Act with evidence of rodents or cockroaches, but this number dropped to 93 in 2018-19 and then to 53 in the past financial year,” the spokeswoman said.

Fish salad at Pan Thai Restaurant

The majority of fines were issued to eateries in Brisbane CBD, with the suburb’s unhygienic eateries attracting some $75,000 last financial year.

The offences that restaurants were fined for did not necessarily occur in the 2019/20 financial year.

The figures come after The Courier-Mail found more than a dozen venues across southeast Queensland had not been adequately enforcing rules that required patrons to give their name, address and phone number so they can be traced in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.

BRISBANE EATERIES FINED FOR FOOD SAFETY BREACHES 2019-20

• Punjabi Palace in South Brisbane fined $16,000 for 14 offences relating to food storage, cleanliness, maintenance, single use items and animals and pests. 17/10/2019
• Eagle Farm TAFE Cafeteria Kitchen, run by All Crowd Catering, fined $22,000 for 24 offences relating to food storage, food display, cleanliness, maintenance, and animals and pests. 31/10/2019
• The Mill on Constance in Fortitude Valley fined $10,000 for four offences relating to cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 23/01/2020
• Pan Thai at Camp Hill fined $20,000 for 10 offences relating to food storage, cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 12/03/2020
• A Calamvale business fined $18,000 for 10 offences, relating to food storage, cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 1/07/2019
• A Coorparoo businesses fined $12,500 for two offences relating to unsafe food. 05/07/2019
• A Brisbane CBD business fined $18,000 for 10 offences relating to cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 16/07/2019
• A Spring Hill business fined $20,000 for 10 offences relating to food storage, cleanliness and animals and pests. 25/07/2019
• A Brisbane CBD business fined $22,000 for 24 offences, relating to food storage, cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 25/07/2019
• A Kangaroo Point business fined $30,000 for 38 offences relating to food storage, cleanliness, cleaning and sanitising, maintenance, single use items and animals and pests. 26/07/2019
• A Brisbane CBD business fined $10,000 for four offences relating to cleanliness and animals and pests. 05/08/2019
• A Brisbane CBD business fined Brisbane $25,000 for five offences relating to cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. it also failed to comply with a council improvement notice. 05/08/2019
• A Sandgate Business fined $22,000 for 12 offences relating to food storage, cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 27/08/2019
• A Calamvale business fined $20,900 for 10 offences relating to food storage, cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 24/09/2019
• A Middle Park business fined $14,000 for six offences relating to cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 24/09/2019
• A Dutton Park business fined $3000 for 10 offences relation to cleanliness, maintenance, single use items and animals and pests. 27/09/2019
• A South Brisbane business fined $15,000 for five offences relating to cleanliness and animals and pests. 11/11/2019
• A Fortitude Valley business fined $14,000 for six offences relating to cleanliness and animals and pests. 12/11/2019
• A Greenslopes business fined $15,000 for 10 offences relating to cleanliness, maintenance, temperature measuring devices, and animals and pests. 24/02/2020
• A Carindale business fined $21,000 for 30 offences relating to hand wash facilities, cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 09/03/2020
• A Stafford business fined $14,000 for eight offences including cleanliness, maintenance and animals and pests. 20/03/2020
• A Carindale business fined $30,800 for 16 offences including food storage, hygiene, cleanliness maintenance and animal and pests. 14/04/2020