OPEN & HYGIENIC OR CLOSED!

Posted by Stelios Theocharous December 1, 2009 - 7:59 am

Written for Fish & Chips & Fast Food Magazine, Nov/Dec 2009

I haven’t commented on this subject before, as I think that time was needed for the whole debate to settle and the evidence to come forward. Earlier this year, a fish and chip shop was closed by the local authorities because their customers had contracted E.coli 0157. I have some issues about this whole case and although it seems like I am targeting the shop, if you read on, you will see I am focusing on the whole incident and its wider meaning.

I spend most of my time visiting fish and chip shops giving out batter samples and the other part working in our shop. I see some brilliant shops, and I can honestly say hand on heart that the percentage of shops that are dirty, and unclean to the eye has been well under 1%. I think it is easiest to blame a poor shop on the shop owner, and to be fair most of it is his/her fault. However, customers do have the choice not to go there. I know from my own experience how my customers appreciate a nice clean shop to buy their food from. If they didn’t think we were clean would they shop with us? I don’t think so!

When the shop in question was closed, it was because the local authorities had concerns that the public might be at risk. Now, E.coli is mostly found in beef and vegetables, so this is my first issue. Heat kills E.coli, that’s issue number two, and my third issue – in case you’re thinking I am sticking up for the shop in question – is if it is possible that this shop did give customers E.coli why was it still in business?

Please stay with me – there is a lot of information to take in, and I hope after you have read it we will all look at our practices a bit harder.

Beef and vegetables are the most likely source of E.coli, so in our business this could be down to burgers, potatoes, and kebabs, if you do them, because they have beef in them too. So it’s possible the shop in question had left his meat products uncovered in the danger zone for great lengths of time and then cooked them inadequately and then served them to these unsuspecting customers – but I cannot understand why anyone would do this. The proprietor had been in business for 17 years so he should know a thing or two about keeping customers (although his claim to fame is quite the opposite now). Then you come to potatoes, because as you know they are a vegetable, and E.coli can be present on potatoes from cattle manure. But we do wash the potatoes thoroughly and then they get chipped and usually washed again – but even assuming all the mud has gone there is still a risk that there is E.coli on the raw chips. Which brings me to my next point.

Heat is the one thing we have in abundance in fish and chip shops. If it’s not fryers, it’s kebab machines or ovens or even cookers and we now have loads of red tape in fish and chip shops about making sure things are hot over 75oc and then held above 68oc and then making sure all frozen foods and chilled foods are kept to the correct temperatures.

So let’s take this step by step: we have prepped the chips, and our fish has been delivered. We’re ready to prep up and my pans are set to 180oc. I make my batter and I then start cooking. I start to add my fish by battering and laying into the pan, where the temp is 180oc, though it may drop a little over the next 5-8 minutes depending on how you cook your fish, with chips or without. The fish is piping hot when it comes out – well above 100oc – and then my heater is set to 80oc, so that’s quite safe isn’t it? Then my chips cook for around 6-8 minutes at 180oc. OK, the temperature will fluctuate depending on the parameters ie: how many chips you added to pan, temperature of pan, state of oil etc, but still they are fairly safe and my health inspector said there is more chance of the pope coming to visit my shop than somebody getting food poisoning from my chips! I know that not all shops do kebabs and burgers but it is relevant because a lot of shops do, so my kebabs are on a high heat and to be fair I have been trained for years to make sure it’s not raw, and usually it’s very simple to tell: the cooked meat has a cooked colour of greyish brown, and raw is red so it’s fairly obvious. When cooked, the meat either gets served fresh or goes into a bain marie at about 80oc.

For my third issue, we go back to the customer who is ill or a customer who eats food from a shop so dirty that against all the odds explained above E.coli was still found. I just can’t understand it. Surely such a shop would be visibly unhygienic? WHY would customers eat in a place like this? So before we get as far as the council, I believe customers are at fault if they choose to support a business which is obviously dirty and has very bad hygiene practices. They really are asking for trouble, aren’t they? It’s just like a disclaimer on a building that’s about to be demolished – there is a warning sign saying “do not enter”, so if you do, it’s at your own risk! For customers in the food industry, the “signs” are dirt, rubbish, and general uncleanliness – if they disregard them, it’s at their own risk, but I still can’t under­stand why anyone would patronise a dirty shop and help keep it open for business.

I know most fish and chip operators are thinking along the same lines, because – while a handful of shops with poor hygiene practises do damage the look of the whole industry because of the stereotype – I can tell you that in some of the shops I have visited since being in this job, I would happily eat off the floor (well, sitting on it because that’s just plain wrong!) because they’re that clean, so it’s a very small minority that lets us down.

My last point which leads on from this is that health inspectors are not doing a proper job. Their departments are under-funded and they cannot keep up with the number of food shops that are selling inferior food in an unhygienic setting. We see our health inspector once every 3 – 6 months depending on how busy he is, and when I see some of the food establishments locally (all food takeaways and restaurants) I do feel let down at the least.

I think that everyone is to blame in this particular case: the customers, the owner and the council. I believe if a shop is not good enough it should be closed until further notice, which would send a strong message to the public and the owners of food establishments. Rather than messing about with star systems or smiley faces, if they want to raise standards give just two choices – Open & Hygienic or Closed!