Victorian restaurants cop heavy fines
Regulators have hit a string of Victorian restaurants with heavy fines for unsanitary kitchens.
Ten Victorian restaurants copped fines of more than $325,000. And they are also up for costs for operating cockroach-infested kitchens.
Offenses ranged from failing to protect food from contamination by pests to knowingly handling food in an unhealthy manner.
Most of the restaurants were Asian venues.
One of the biggest single fines was slapped on the Post Deng Cafe in Little Bourke St: $50,000, plus $3442.19 in costs.
The restaurant is now under new management.
But it was a different story back in May 2015 when it was convicted for various offences that included unsafe food handling, failing to take all practicable measures to eradicate and prevent pests and failing to ensure the place was clean enough that “there was no accumulation of food, waste, dirt and grease”.
Raramen, in Glen Waverley, was fined $19,000 in July 2015. Council inspectors going through the kitchen found live and dead cockroaches, drain flies, rodent faeces and filthy buildups of food waste, grease, oil and grime.
New owners have since taken over the restaurant which achieved full compliance with the Food Act in July.
Then there was Clayton’s Café Student Curries and Pizza Restaurant.
It was fined $67,500 plus costs last August for unsanitary conditions which included inadequate pest control, poor food storage and handwashing facilities.
Three of the 10 restaurants fined were in the municipality of Monash.
Others were found in Whitehorse, Darebin, Manningham, Melbourne, Yarra and Mornington Peninsula.
Other restaurants that were fined include:
La Casareccia Pizza Restaurant (aka Grillers Steak and Ribs, Bubbles Seafood, My Room Service), 653 High St, Thornbury — fined $40,000
Dumpling King, Westfield Doncaster Food Court, Doncaster — fined $25,000
Healthy Noodle, 1905 Dandenong Rd, Clayton — fined $17,000
Dees Kitchen, 19 Pier St, Dromana — fined $15,000
Wendy’s Bakery, 473 Whitehorse Rd, Mitcham — fined $7500
Hills Noodle Shop, 585 Station St, Box Hill — fined $4000
August 23rd 2016
