Canberra cafe owner has charges dropped over salmonella outbreak
The owner of a Canberra cafe has walked from court after charges against him were dropped relating to a salmonella outbreak that saw more than 100 people fall ill in 2017.
Ricardo’s owner Rick De Marco had originally faced eight charges that were based on numerous complaints of illness caused by salmonella. However, prosecutors dropped seven charges against him, with De Marco pleading guilty to one count of failing to comply with the food standards code.
The ACT chief magistrate Lorraine Walker said there was no correlation between De Marco's plea of guilty to the individual charge and the salmonella outbreak.
The single charge against De Marco related to breaches discovered by health inspectors including uncovered containers of food in a refrigerator and a single-use container being reused.
Walker said that the instances were not at the lowest end of offending, "they were pretty close".
De Marco's reputation had suffered significantly due to reporting of the salmonella outbreak and the closure of his business, according to Walker.
Speaking to The Canberra Times, De Marco's solicitor, Zoe Jones, said “there was no evidence from the outset of any link between any action of Ricardo’s staff and the salmonella outbreak”.
"The firestorm these allegations have made will obviously affect the business," she said.
Sheridan Randall, 5th March 2019
