Moreton region restaurants beat out Brisbane

New data suggests that restaurants in Queensland’s Moreton region are cleaner and less likely to give you food poisoning than their Brisbane counterparts. Restaurants in Brisbane received almost half a million dollars in fines for various food safety breaches last year and were responsible for more than 1200 cases of salmonella poisoning.

According to a report issue by the Pine River Press, in 2014 the Brisbane City Council carried out 6220 food safety inspections and issued $435,800 in fines. Where as in Moreton, of the 1089 inspections, only $8535 worth of fines was handed out. This means that 0.8 per cent of all food businesses inspected in Moreton were issued with fines, compared with 5.3 per cent of those in Brisbane.

Moreton mayor proud

Mayor of the Moreton region Allan Sutherland was reportedly very happy with the findings of the report. Going into the quiet season anything that can increase restaurant traffic is more than welcome.

“I certainly welcome the results in the Moreton Bay Region and encourage people to keep trying new restaurants and cafes in our region,” he said.

“We are the proud home of emerging wineries, big steakhouses and seafood restaurants, and of course plenty of great family-friendly cafes.”

Brisbane food safety woes continue

The Brisbane City Council currently operates a food safety rating system called Eat Safe that gives food businesses a rating of between 1 and 5 stars. Since it began, other councils in Queensland and Tasmania have adopted the food safety system.

However considering the food poisoning scandals that plagued Brisbane earlier this year, with more than 325 people struck down at different times with food poisoning, it does not appear that a report into the state of Brisbane’s food safety in 2015 will be much of an improvement on this years.

This is worrying not just for those wishing to experience a safe and enjoyable dining experience but also for the future prosperity of Brisbane’s hospitality industry.