Pane Organico: Once-great Mermaid Beach bakery admits widespread food safety breaches
Rat faeces. Mould. Flies on pastries. Pigeons flying around the premises. Biologically unsatisfactory vanilla slices and apple turnovers. If you ate here recently, grab a bucket before you see the exclusive gallery.
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A once-popular Gold Coast bakery that closed its doors earlier this year has admitted to widespread food safety breaches and brazenly ignoring the suspension of its food services licence.
Pane Organico Pty Ltd, which traded under the same name from a shop at Mermaid Beach Village, appeared in Southport Magistrates Court, represented by company director and head baker Luigi Incampo, 72, who is not charged in a personal capacity with any breaches.
The company pleaded guilty to 35 breaches of the Food Act 2006, which included selling unsuitable food, handling food for sale in a way that will or is likely to make food unsuitable, failing to comply with requirements imposed under the Food Standards Code, contravening conditions of a licence, and carrying on a licensable food business without a licence.
The breaches occurred on various dates between approximately February and May 2024.
Lawyer Jaclyn Poulton, acting for the prosecuting agency, the City of Gold Coast, told the court council officers began visiting the business from October 2022 and issued a series of infringement, improvement, and show-cause notices in the period between then and the commencement of the prosecution.
“Multiple opportunities were given to the business to amend their ways, to fix the specific issues raised by the council, which could have avoided the prosecution,” Ms Poulton said.
Ms Poulton told the court the council suspended the company’s food licence on February 9, the day after an inspection revealed gut-churning levels of noncompliance, but the business kept trading.
According to Ms Poulton, issues detected by council officers included “fly infestations, food waste accumulation, grime accumulation, [and] uncovered cream and egg whites”.
Pies were witnessed cooling on a trolley with “food waste and mould congealed” on it, a wooden tradie’s paintbrush was used to brush on egg whites, a thick layer of fat caked several cooking areas, a filthy tape measure was used to size pastries, and several key pieces of equipment were never cleaned (dough proofer) or rarely cleaned (meat slicer).
Pigeons were present in the bakery, rat faeces dotted the premises, and dead flies were seen collecting on pastries that were ready for sale.
Ms Poulton said scientific testing on several menu items, including the apple turnover and vanilla slice, were of an “unsatisfactory biological quality”, as was the diced meat stored on-site.
Defence lawyer Philip Whitehead told the court his client’s director, Mr Incampo, was working 14 hour days with the support of three sales staff.
“He tried to get staff from time to time to follow the cleaning regime, the regime did not succeed. He acknowledges the company did not meet its obligations,” Mr Whitehead said.
Mr Whitehead claimed the council officers typically undertook inspections in the mid to late morning, by which point the bakery was naturally messy due to Mr Incampo’s exertions.
He further claimed the summer was unseasonably hot, meaning there was a high presence of flies during council inspections.
“There were not any, or a lot, of complaints from the public that they were unhappy with the product. Much of the product was to a high standard,” Mr Whitehead said.
Magistrate Lisa O’Neill sentenced the company to a fine of $40,000. No conviction was recorded.
Pane Organico opened at Mermaid Beach Village in mid-2019. It is co-owned by Mr Incampo’s fellow director Zhang Na, 37, a resident of Main Beach.
It’s understood the business ceased trading on April 12. Corporate regulator ASIC is currently undertaking strike-off action to formally deregister the company.
PANE ORGANICO’S DIRTY CONDITIONS REVEALED
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Originally published as Pane Organico: Once-great Mermaid Beach bakery admits widespread food safety breaches
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