No power for fridges, lighting by candles and a refusal to allow inspection of the kitchens was the scene that greeted food safety officers when they visited a South Norwood takeaway following repeated warnings about the filthy conditions found on previous visits.
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Obstruction was one of eight offences that resulted in Leroy Houslin being penalised to the tune of £21,614.02 when he appeared before Croydon magistrates on Tuesday (21).
Houslin, company director of Yard Style Kitchen, Portland Road, admitted five offences, and three against the company, after the court heard of a catalogue of failures to observe food hygiene regulations.
The bench was told that officers first visited the premises in April of last year. On that occasion several breaches of hygiene regulations came to light and the standards were considered to be very poor.
The business was very dirty and in a poor state of repair, there was no food safety management system in place and necessary checks were not being carried out.
A letter was sent to the owner outlining the legal requirements, and the recommendations for good practice, including timescales for completion.
A second visit was carried out a short time later and no improvement was found. In May, a deep cleaning of the premises and equipment was ordered, as well as, again, the adoption of a food safety management system.
Third and fourth visits, in July and October, again found that no effort had been made to improve the standards of the business. The structure and equipment were still in a very dirty condition and poor state of repair. Poor practices were observed and there remained no evidence of a food safety management system being implemented.
In February of this year, officers visited the business after learning that the power had been disconnected. They found the shop lit by candles, and a number of customers at the counter. Officers phoned Houslin after staff refused them entry to the kitchen, but he, too, said they could not enter.
Councillor Simon Hoar, cabinet member for community safety, said: “As if the disgusting conditions in which food was prepared and sold to the public in his premises were not bad enough, the owner of this establishment compounded matters by preventing our food safety officers going about their lawful business. Such obstruction, fortunately, is a very rare event in this sort of case.
“The conditions in the premises were truly awful and represented a genuine danger to anybody eating food bought from the place. They were conditions that he knew were completely unacceptable and that he wished to keep from the public gaze.
“It’s clear that the business consistently failed to comply with food hygiene regulations and that the defendant had failed to maintain an acceptable standard.”
Further Information
The offences are outlined below:
1) failure to maintain a Food Safety Management System in order to keep food safe at all times;
2) failure to keep the premises clean and maintained in good repair and condition;
3) failure to keep equipment with which food comes in to contact in a clean condition and in good repair and order;
4) non compliance with Hygiene Improvements Notices and
5) intentionally to obstruct an officer from carrying out duties under the Hygiene Regulations. These offences are all contrary to EC Regulation 852/2004 Hygiene of foodstuffs and food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006.
Examples of the poor practice discovered by council food safety officers:
- Dirty and heavily stained cleaning cloths were used for cleaning work preparation surfaces.
- The upright steel fridge was dirty with congealed raw meat and food debris, including on the door seal and door front, and a strong odour of rotting meat was evident. The food preparation sink was dirty and heavily stained with dirt and raw meat residue. Food debris had built up under and behind the equipment and sink. The wall/floor junctions were filthy and had not been cleaned for a long time. Dry, mouldy food was found on a shelf in the rear store room. The shelving unit used for dried ingredients was dirty and sticky with food debris, including food containers.
- The flat roof of the middle storage room was in poor repair, allowing the ingress of rain water, which was pooling onto the floor. Rain water splashes were evident on the pots containing cooling, cooked, ready-to-eat food.
- Surfaces, shelves, door handles, door seals and equipment throughout the premises were dirty. All of the equipment, including the free-standing gas cooker unit and the extraction canopy and filters, had a thick layer of grease and food debris. The refrigeration units in the kitchen were dirty with stained dried food debris and in poor repair. It was evident that there was a serious failure to clean at this business. The kitchen and rear storage areas were very dirty. The tiled wall covering in the kitchen was stained yellow with grease and dried meat residue. Electric sockets and conduits were caked with grease and dirt. Heavily scored and mouldy chopping boards were being used by food handlers.
- Poor practice included large quantities of cooked food sitting around at room temperature for long periods of time. Cooked ready-to-eat food was stored above the legal acceptable temperature for food safety in the cold display fridge, conditions that would support the growth of food-poisoning bacteria.
- The cooked food was stored in dirty and damaged plastic containers.
- There were no soap or hand-drying facilities at the wash hand basin. The wash hand basin was bone dry, indicating that food handlers were not washing their hands.
