Master Rolls restaurant fined over food safety breaches

A popular sushi restaurant which has received previous warnings for failing inspections by food compliance officers has been hit with more fines. Find out why:

New photos have revealed what confronted council inspectors during a visit to a popular north shore sushi restaurant, which was found to have trays of chicken stored at ambient temperatures.

Master Rolls in Chatswood has been fined $1760 after food compliance officers from Willoughby Council inspected the venue on February 4.

The food safety breaches, which were published on the NSW Food Authority website last week, included two offences of failing to display potentially hazardous food outside temperature control.

The restaurant – located at the Chatswood Chase shopping centre food court – had received previous warnings for the offence during past council inspections.

A Willoughby Council spokeswoman said the business “had a history of noncompliance in relation to temperature control” when dealing with the storage and display of potentially hazardous food.

A photo of cooked chicken at the venue stored at an ambient temperature of 30.2C.

This tray of chicken was meanwhile stored at an ambient temperature of 24C.

Photos taken during the February inspection showed cooked chicken was stored at ambient temperatures of 30.2C and another tray of chicken was stored at 24C.

The offences were a breach of the Food Standards Code which states: “raw and cooked chicken are potentially hazardous foods and require storage and display under temperature control for example 5°C or colder or above 60°C.”

A photo taken during the inspection, which the council said identified insufficient methods for monitoring temperature controls of potentially hazardous food.

The restaurant is located in the Chatswood Chase food court.

Willoughby Council said inspection further showed the business was using an alternative method to monitor temperature, using colour coding and time monitoring which was observed by the council “to be inadequate.”

The North Shore Times contacted Master Rolls for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

The fines come after recent figures showed Chatswood had the state’s highest number of venues fined for food safety breaches in 2021 with 18 infringements issued to 11 businesses.

The council said inspectors visited the restaurant as part of routine inspections of venues in the local government area.

“Council has consistently maintained a strong commitment to protecting the health and safety of consumers of food purchased at registered food businesses in the busy Chatswood CBD and other suburban locations,” the council said.

“Council uses a combination of education and enforcement to encourage compliance with the minimum standards prescribed by the Food Standards Code.”