Food act breach hard to stomach

A busy Brisbane hotel that serves thousands of meals each week is being investigated by an action group for breaches of the Food Act.

The Sunday Mail believes that a raid by food authorities last month found the hotel's refrigeration was not working and evidence of rotting meat.

But under Queensland legislation the identity of the hotel cannot be revealed.

The raid was carried out by an interagency action group including inspectors from Brisbane City Council and representatives of Queensland Health and police.

Brisbane City Council has confirmed that a brief is being prepared to prosecute the hotel.

At present the council has five food matters before the courts, and a further 12 food outlets under investigation for serious breaches - none of these can be identified.

Laws in this state allow details of food premises to be published only if convictions have been recorded.

But if premises take out an appeal or a magistrate issues a non-publication order, offences remain a secret.

There were more than 550 cases of food poisoning in Queensland last month - 440 for campylobactor and 144 for salmonella. So far this year there have been 3628 cases of campylobacteriosis and 2004 cases of salmonella in Queensland.

These are only cases that have been reported to a doctor.

Since July last year there have been four successful prosecutions of food outlets in Brisbane that The Sunday Mail has uncovered, with fines totalling $130,000.

Between September 2007 and October 2009 there have been 620 improvement notices, 43 licence suspensions and 102 infringement notices issued by Brisbane City Council.

A "name and shame" website was introduced though changes to the Food Act in 2006.

But Queensland Health has admitted that local government authorities are unwilling to provide details of venues that are breaching the Food Act to place on the website.

"We have recently written to all councils to encourage them to do so, and we are working very closely with them to enable that to happen," environmental health branch senior director John Piispanen said.

"But councils are not required to do so. Current legal advice indicates that information relating to inspection results of food premises and other enforcement actions taken is considered confidential information and cannot be released without the consent of the food business."

A Brisbane City Council spokesperson said: "Any matters that are finalised in court become public records and can be accessed through the court records."

Queensland Health's food safety website states that "prosecutions are not undertaken indiscriminately, they are a tool to prevent or reduce a serious risk to public health".

"The prosecutions register aims to increase public access to information and to act as a deterrent for non-compliance with the Act by food business operators."

Queensland Health said it was difficult to prove the cause of food poisoning because it could take up to five days for campylobacteriosis to develop in a person's body and up to 18 hours for salmonella.

Mr Piispanen said the public played an important role in food safety as the department relied on their complaints.

Published in Courier Mail 17 October.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26223515-3102,00.html