Red Rooster Springvale found to have breached Food Act 23 times
The real reasons Springvale’s Red Rooster restaurant was shut down last month have been revealed in court.
South East
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The real reasons why Springvale’s Red Rooster restaurant was shut down last month have been revealed in court — and it’s enough to put you off your dinner.
A rat, dirty, greasy and broken equipment and poor cleaning practices were discovered by council officers during repeated inspections.
Gratian Pty Ltd, former franchisee of the currently-closed Springvale Rd store, pleaded guilty to 23 food act breaches at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court today.
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Just last month Red Rooster head office temporarily shut the Springvale site down, saying it “did not reach the standards that we pride ourselves on”.
They’ve said the closure is only temporary and they hoped to reopen a revamped and improved Red Rooster in a few days.
A council summary read out in court revealed inspectors first visited the store on October 10 last year.
They found a significant build-up of grease on filters and equipment, an unclean heating lamp, food waste beneath storage units and a odours emanating from a skip.
They also discovered a rear door was left open, which could have let pests inside, broken taps in the staff toilets, and a chopping board in bad condition.
A second inspection ten days later showed there had not been a significant improvement, and there had in fact been more similar breaches.
A third check on October 27, this time with a Red Rooster business consultant present, found only six of the 50 problems had been fixed up.
The council summary stated there was a “dead rodent” next to the water heating unit in the garbage room, and there were a large number of cigarette butts on the ground in the enclosed staff yard.
Another follow-up on November 9 again revealed similar food safety problems.
Gratian’s defence lawyer said there was no charge relating to the rat, there had been no complaints from the public, no-one had gotten sick and there were no reports of contaminated food.
He said when Gratian bought the franchise in 2014 he had not realised how old the equipment was, and the “hellish experience” since had been a financial nightmare.
Magistrate Pauline Spencer said Gratian had suffered a significant penalty already, losing over $300,000 in the “doomed” project.
“(Food safety) is a concerning matter, we all know how things can go terribly wrong,” Ms Spencer said.
“(But), there is no evidence anyone was harmed, it was not a flagrant disregard, it was a symptom of a business in crisis.”
Gratian was fined $5000, with no conviction recorded.
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