Fortune Place Chinese Restaurant Chatswood cops $25K fine
A bucket filled with raw meat and employees working on dirty and unsanitised cutting boards are just some of the reasons a Chinese restaurant in Chatswood has been fined after failing 15 of its last 20 inspections. Now the owner has tried to explain why his eatery couldn’t meet health authority standards.
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A Chinese restaurant in Chatswood has been fined $25,000 after failing 15 of its last 20 health inspections.
When Willoughby Council inspected Fortune Place Chinese Restaurant last September, officers found an uncovered bucket filled with raw meat and ginger, employees working on a dirty and unsanitized cutting board, raw food dripping onto a box of lettuce and dirty surfaces, walls, floors and ceilings, Downing Centre Local Court heard on Thursday.
Images, tendered to court, showed uncovered food soaked in a bucket on the floor, a large hole in the ceiling of the storage room which was possibly “a point of entry for pests”, frozen thawing chicken in a cardboard box, and a container of uncovered raw eggs stored next to ready-to-eat food.
There was “no sanitising step” for food contact surfaces, a health safety report read.
The “unsatisfactory” inspections dated back to 2013, with 20 penalty infringements issued and a brief voluntary closure in 2015.
Council was also sent in after complaints from members of the public, the court heard.
“It was not in a clean state,” a council prosecutor told the court.
Following the 20th “unsatisfactory” inspection, and only after the council had commenced legal proceedings, did Fortune Place Chinese Restaurant “fix” all the problems noted in the September inspection, a council prosecutor told the court.
They were charged with five counts of failure to comply with the provisions of the Food Standards Code, which holds a maximum penalty of $250,000.
When asked if there was anything he wanted to say, the owner of the restaurant replied, through a Cantonese interpreter, “I’m sorry”.
In his written submissions to the court, the owner said he didn’t achieve the health authority standards because his staff lacked training and there was a language barrier.
He said he has now had meetings with staff about health and safety, and the head chef has finished a food safety training program.
The owner said due to COVID-19, sales are down 70 per cent, and his staff are working hard to help the business survive.
He asked the court to “cancel his penalty”.
But Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson said the Food Act was important and the offending was “serious”.
“The public are put at risk when food standards aren’t complied with. They are at risk of getting sick and consequences can be quite severe,” she said.
She convicted Fortune Place Chinese Restaurant and fined them $5000 for each of their five charges.
They were also ordered to pay $2000 for Willoughby Council’s legal fees.