PUBS, restaurants and cafes which fail to live up to food hygiene standards have been warned there will be no hiding place from prosecution.
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Swansea Council issued the warning after the owner of the Plough and Harrow pub in Llansamlet was fined £3,500 for four breaches of food standards regulations and ordered to pay £600 in costs.
City magistrates were told inspectors found accumulated food waste throughout the pub’s kitchen, rotting vegetables on the floor, mouldy fridges and freezers and cooking equipment that had not been cleaned properly.
John Hague, Cabinet Member for Environment said: “When people go out to enjoy themselves at their local pub or restaurant they expect their food to be prepared in clean, well-managed kitchens.
“That’s what the Council wants too. We will work with businesses to improve and maintain standards. But we will not hesitate to prosecute those who put public health at risk.”
Photographs of the kitchen at the Plough and Harrow presented to the court showed rotting vegetables under counters, machinery that had not been cleaned for a long time and a dirty fridge with mouldy seals and food debris inside.
Michael Bolter, proprietor of the Plough and Harrow, 57, Church Road, Llansamlet, pleaded guilty to four food hygiene offences at a hearing on January 12, 2012.
They were:
- There were accumulations of mould and food debris throughout the main kitchen and the vegetable / dish wash room including within the fridges and at wall floor junctions. The premises had not been effectively cleaned for some time.
- On examining Food Safety Management documents at the premises it became apparent that food safety monitoring records had not been completed since the Autumn of 2010. Items relating to cleaning and lack of food safety records had been raised during the previous routine inspection in February 2010.
- There were food spillages in the microwave, mould on fridge and freezer seals, spillages on the internal surfaces of the freezer, old encrusted food on the tin opener.
- No paper towel provided for hand drying at the kitchen wash hand basin.
Magistrates fined Mr Bolter £500 for the hand drying offence and £1,000 each for the other three offences. He was ordered to pay £600 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
The Court was told Swansea Council acted following what was a routine inspection by an Environmental Health Officer in March last year.
Nearly 1,200 food-related businesses in Swansea are now rated on a national website giving potential customers a better idea of their hygiene levels.
