Revealed: Brisbane eateries hit with food safety, hygiene fines

A dead mouse, cockroaches, pest poo and filth — dozens of rule-breaking Brisbane eateries have been fined for unsafe food practices. See the full list and have your say on whether restaurants should be named and shamed.

A decomposing rodent, live cockroaches, pest poo, unsafe food and grime – welcome to the filthy side of Brisbane’s restaurant scene.

In the last financial year Brisbane City Council launched 32 prosecutions against food-rule breaking eateries that rendered $287,000 in court ordered fines.

The council also issued 85 fines of its own, slugging non-compliant restaurants $82,680.

In total 80 individual food businesses were either prosecuted in court or fined by council for a total of $369,680.

The largest court issued fine was $25,000 while the smallest was $1000.

For privacy reasons the council won’t identify the businesses that have fallen foul of the Food Act.

But open court proceedings reveal West End institution Trang Restaurant on Hardgrave was one of the culprits in 2021/22.

Brisbane Magistrates Court heard a dead mouse was located on the restaurant’s dry store room floor dirt, food waste, grease and rat droppings on shelves under the sink.

The restaurant’s lawyer explained: “I suppose you could call it a series of unfortunate events where the rodent just decided to call the storage area its resting place.”

The owner of Trang Restaurant was fined $20,000 for failing to comply with the food safety code. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Ngoc – Huong Pty Ltd, trading as Trang Restaurant on Hardgrave, pleaded guilty to five counts of failing to comply with a requirement imposed by the food standards code. Since the incident the restaurant had been “compliant, cooperative, fully transparent and attended to all the issues as soon as possible” and gone beyond what was required, the court heard.

The company was fined $20,000 with no conviction recorded, the second highest penalty for 2021/22 in Brisbane.

A dead mouse was found on Trang Restaurant's dry store room floor. Picture: Supplied

Also fined $20,000 without conviction recorded was Crema Espresso Franchising over six breaches of the Food Act at its Indooroopilly cafe, which has now closed.

The court heard there was a nest of 20 live cockroaches under a fridge, an accumulation of live and dead cockroaches next to the kitchen sink and on the floor and four dead cockroaches and faeces inside a cabinet in the customer service area.

The company pleaded guilty and defence barrister Matt Jackson said cockroaches weren’t found where the food was prepared in the kitchen and the breaches were at the lower end of seriousness.

Live and dead cockroaches were found on the floor at Crema Espresso at Indooroopilly. Picture: Supplied

In the same shopping centre as Crema, Hanaichi Indooroopilly was fined $12,000 with no convictions recorded after it pleaded guilty to 12 breaches of the Food Act including the presence of live and dead cockroaches. There was also accumulation of food waste grease and cockroach faeces found on equipment and chicken stored at an unsafe 49.5C. Lawyer Benjamin Pan said his client made a “genuine attempt” to address the pest issue and since the breaches had implemented daily and more substantial weekly cleaning.

The owners of Buncha Buncha – Tuan Quang Nguyen and Trang Thi Hien Chu – were fined $7,500 each after both pleaded guilty to nine breaches of the Food Act.

The Stones Corner restaurant was found to contain rat droppings in the kitchen and chicken products stored at unsafe temperatures.

The court heard they had complied with the council in relation to the incident and no convictions were recorded.

The two owners of Stones Corner’s Buncha Buncha were fined $7,500 each due to nine breaches of the Food Act. Picture: Supplied

In all cases the food businesses cited the devastating impact Covid-19 had on their eateries.

Currently Queensland and Tasmania are the only states that do not publish the names of businesses that have been prosecuted for food safety breaches.

New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia all maintain such a register, colloquially called a name and shame list.

In previous years such as 2016 Brisbane City Council did name and shame rogue restaurants.

When asked about the change of heart a council spokeswoman said it was a matter for the State Government.

“We are unable to release the business names under the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992,” she said.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said historically the department did publish a register of food prosecutions but this ended more than a decade ago.

“Information published in the register did not necessarily reflect the standard of food sold by a business at a particular point in time,” she said.

“ For example, the business may have been sold after being prosecuted and publication may continue to unfairly penalise the new business owner.”

Information on food safety enforcement was publicly available through court reporting, Right to Information applications, media releases or from local governments, she said.

While Brisbane City Council doesn’t publish the names of offenders it does identify restaurants who receive a three or higher star rating as part of the Eat Safe Brisbane scheme.

At present there are nearly 850 restaurants with a five star rating, however participation in the scheme is optional.

Asked if Covid had an impact on restaurants complying with food standards the spokeswoman said: “There has been a 25% increase in the number of five-star food businesses over the past five years.”

“Council’s Eat Safe scheme is designed to improve safety standards by providing incentives like licensing discounts to high-performing businesses,” she said.