City council fines councillor for food safety breeches

A Coffs Harbour city councillor has been issued with $1320 in fines for failing to comply with food safety standards. And the twist is, he was issued the fines by Environmental Health Officers from the same local council he works for.

Cr John Arkan runs an Indian take-away food van called Temple Gardens Curried Away, which has received infringement notices for several food safety breeches.

According to the Coffs Coast Advocate, Environmental Health Officers had previously issued warnings to Cr John regarding the state of food safety in his business.

However during an inspection, the officers reportedly found that Cr Arkan failed to take measures to ensure hands are washed when handling food, failed to store potentially hazardous food under temperature control and failed to store food in a way that it is protected from the likelihood of contamination.

Cr Arkan told Advocate reporters that he did not contest the infringement notices and has made changes to ensure he is compliant.

NSW food authority name and shame register

Like other NSW food businesses that are fined for breeching food safety regulations, Temple Gardens Curried Away has been listed on the NSW Food Authority’s Name and Shame Register.

The NSW Food Authority say that the register is designed to “gives consumers more information to make decisions about where they eat or buy food.”

Before heading out to eat, NSW residents can use the register to search for whether a food business has ever been issued a food safety infringement notice.

Although the register only goes back as far as August 2013, it already lists almost 1500 offences.