The Gold Coast City Council has seen an increase in food safety breaches in restaurants and cafes across the region with 127 restaurants fined in the 2014-2015 financial year.
This is an increase from 98 restaurants during the 2013-14 period despite the council performing 350 fewer routine inspections. In addition, improvement notices sent out to food service operators increased significantly during the same period from 717 to 1204.
Speaking with the Gold Coast Bulletin, councillor Bob La Castra said that the increase in fines demonstrates that the council takes food safety breaches very seriously.
“As a city, our tourist industry and our food industry obviously go hand-in-hand. We can’t afford to actually have substandard or lax standards in our restaurants as it damages our image and reputation,” he said.
“By finding more breaches with fewer inspections, it sends a clear message to the industry that we’re hot on this.”
Saks Restaurant was one of the restaurants fined during the 2014-15 period. The upmarket restaurant located on the waterfront at Main Beach was found to harbour both dead and live cockroaches, dirt, mould, dust and food waste in its kitchen.
Glen Day, president of Restaurant Industry Support Gold Coast says that it’s important to note that not all breaches are related to bad food hygiene practices, with some operators pulled up for minor infringements such as “a chipped tile or a skirting board that’s off”.
“Some restaurants silly enough not to fix these things up who keep getting repeat visits, they get fined,” says Day.
