What happened in July?

The editorial

John McCombe

Editor Yvonne Martin

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Editor’s Corner

Living the dream? Bring on Cup Week The 1st issue in The Press Looking forward What happened in July? June's welcome May's editorial April's news A word on March What happened in February?

With medical laboratory scientists for friends, I’ve long opened doors and pushed lift buttons with my elbows, squirted hand sanitiser as if it’s Oscar de la Renta, and had a hateful relationship with my dishcloth. The threat of swine flu has only exacerbated these strange behaviours. Imagine the horror, then, of finding out a restaurant my partner and I visited for a work function was the very one involved in a double outbreak of gut-wrenching gastroenteritis only months earlier.

Fortunately, the health inspectors at Community and Public Health got involved, after being tipped off by a diner, and took a good, hard look at the restaurant's food-safety practices. They found them seriously wanting and gave some advice, including throwing out a manky old masher used to process cooked beans.

A kitchen masher, probably worth about $15, had contributed to making a group of people violently ill for days. We'd unwittingly had a brush with heinous bacteria, Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus. The double outbreak within 12 days, affecting at least 24 people, didn't make the newspapers at the time, so who knows what the real tally was? Food poisoning costs the country $83 million a year, mostly in lost productivity, according to a New Zealand Food Safety Authority study last year.

Restaurant grading regimes have been lifting food-hygiene standards in cities such as Auckland, Waitakere and Manukau. Health officers in those territories wouldn't be without their effective systems.

I, for one, have been valuing Waitakere's grading system during family visits north and am much happier taking elderly parents to restaurants proudly displaying an "A" in the front window.

Yes, it is just an indicator of the last council inspection, and standards do slip, but surely that is better than no grading system at all?

The Christchurch City Council has resisted introducing such a system.

Three years ago, when I worked for The Press, the council's then team leader of environmental monitoring told me of Christchurch restaurants: "If they're open, great; that's an A grade. You can presume that it's safe to eat there, put it that way. If they're less than that, then they're closed." I sorely wanted to believe him.

It appears the council has taken a "wait-and-see" approach, expecting that a proposed food bill will ring in a new regime, including a national grading system. However, as our key story of the month reveals, the future of the bill is murkier than ever.

The city's diners deserve more. They deserve more openness from the council on the results of inspections, so consumers can make better informed decisions about where they eat.

We are interested in your opinions on the issue. Log on to www.avenues.net.nz and give us a piece of your mind. Or send a letter to Avenues, Private Bag 4722, Christchurch 8140. We'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy your Avenues.