- Cockroaches and eggs found 'huddled together' in pizza base cupboard
- Pizza Pan takeaway in Birmingham also sells fried chicken and chips
- Infestation of insects found in cool drinks chiller and under work surfaces
- Also discovered on work surfaces where pizza boxes were being stored
- Owner Shaid Salim, 38, is fined £900 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs
A pizza takeaway was shut for just three days after health inspectors found it was infested with hundreds of dead and alive cockroaches.
Pizza Pan in Perry Barr, Birmingham, was ordered to shut after baby cockroaches and eggs and 20 of the insects were discovered ‘huddled together’ in a cupboard where pizza bases were kept.
The takeaway, which also sells fried chicken and chips, was also found to have cockroaches behind a cool drinks chiller, under a microwave, and crawling on a wall.
Found under work surface: Pizza Pan in Perry Barr, Birmingham, which also sold fried chicken and chips, was found to have cockroaches behind a cool drinks chiller, under a microwave, and crawling on a wall
Disgusting: The insects were also on work surfaces where pizza boxes were being stored, while dead ones were discovered in a storeroom washing up area
The insects were also on work surfaces where pizza boxes were being stored, while dead ones were discovered in a storeroom washing up area.
Its owner Shaid Salim, 38, of Bordesley Green, Birmingham, has now been fined £900 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs after pleading guilty to one charge under the Food Hygiene Regulations.
Magistrates told him it was a serious infestation which built up over time, but they took into account his lack of previous convictions and attempts to restore the business to a better level of hygiene.
She said: ‘Officers then began inspecting the premises, starting in the kitchen, and immediately saw dead and live cockroaches on the floor.’
Miss Kettle said there was ready-to-eat salad on a work surface which raised ‘serious concerns’ of the food being contaminated, while there was also an area where dirt and grease had accumulated.
Inspection: Two environmental health officers made a routine visit in November 2013 to the takeaway (above)
Operating business for ten years: Owner Shaid Salim (pictured), 38, has now been fined £900 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs after pleading guilty to one charge under the Food Hygiene Regulations
An emergency closure order was issued by the council, but the business was allowed to open again after three days.
Salim did not appear in court for a year, but this was still just inside the 12-month window within which cases can be brought, with his first hearing in November 2014, and his most recent one yesterday.
Officers then began inspecting the premises, starting in the kitchen, and immediately saw dead and live cockroaches on the floor
Julia Kettle, prosecuting
Ghulam Sohail, defending, said Salim had been operating the business for ten years and it had previously been given a high hygiene rating.
A significant amount of work had subsequently been done to prevent rodents or cockroaches getting into the takeaway, he said.
Pizza Pan - which is open every day of the week from 4pm until after midnight - has an average rating of four stars from almost 650 reviews on takeaway website Just Eat.
And its last Food Standards Agency rating in September 2014 was four out of five, which is 'good'.
Responding to a query about why the takeaway was only shut for three days, a council spokesman told MailOnline: 'Where our environmental health officers find breaches of food hygiene regulations in any food business, they will work with that business to ensure any imminent risk to public health is removed and that it complies with regulations, so it can operate safely.
'The time this can take may vary, depending on the severity and extent of the issues identified when inspected, and how well the business works with the council to tackle these effectively, to achieve compliance and remove any risk to public health.'
No comments:
Post a Comment