Highland Council probed 160 food claims, says report
Frozen fly is among hygiene complaints
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More than 160 food hygiene complaints were investigated by Highland Council officials last year, according to a new report.
The complaints about restaurants, hotels, takeaways and kitchen facilities across the north included one claiming a caterpillar was found in vegetables served at a table.
Another claimed to have found a fly in a frozen baguette, and in one instance officials received a report of a robin in a kitchen. The incidences are highlighted in an annual report to the council’s transport, environmental and community services committee, which is due to meet on Thursday.
Among the complaints, 80 related to the hygiene of premises or staff, 37 related to “foreign bodies”, while 18 concerned microbiological problems, such as mouldy food. Nine complaints were made about chemical contamination, including chicken tikka pasta which tasted of soap and “unusual-tasting” lemonade. And 24 complaints related to labelling and composition, including out-of-date breakfast cereal.
The report by principal food safety officer Alan Yates also reveals that officials sent 1,168 warning letters to establishments alerting them to contraventions of public health legislation.
They ordered one premises to close immediately after serving it with a hygiene emergency prohibition notice. Another five hygiene improvement notices were served in 2007/08, ordering kitchens to clean up their act. The report also highlights an outbreak of the highly-infectious Norovirus following a wedding at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness.
Of the 172 guests, 72 displayed symptoms of the bug, which include vomiting and abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, headache and fever.
Environmental health officials made a full inspection of the hotel and made rapid contact with as many guests as possible – 132 in the end, according to the report.
But Mr Yates said: “No problems were identified with the hotel and it was concluded that the most likely source of the outbreak was a guest carrying norovirus vomiting in the toilets at the start of the reception.”
The report also shows officers carried out 2,958 visits across the north in connection with food hygiene, and 826 in connection with food standards – the composition and labelling of food.
