Marrickville based food manufacturing company, Sunrise Meats was convicted and sentenced in the NSW Downing Centre Local Court last Friday for multiple breaches of the Food Act 2003.
The convictions relate to food safety and hygiene failures, including the failure to maintain fixtures, fittings and equipment to the standard required, food handling practices that failed to properly address possible contamination risk and failure to employ effective and continuous pest control.
The company pleaded guilty to a total of 11 charges equating to fines of $41,250 and $10,000 in professional costs. The charges include:
- Hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness breaches (3 charges)
- Contravene the provisions of the Food Safety Scheme (3 charges)
- Fail to comply with the conditions of licence (3 charges)
- Fail to comply with requirement imposed by a food safety scheme in relation to the preparation, implementation, maintenance, monitoring, certification or auditing of a food safety program (1 charge)
- Contravene a Prohibition Order (1 charge)
Polly Bennett, CEO of the NSW Food Authority said that the body is dedicated to ensuring that food producers and manufacturers follow the strict food safety standards stipulated by the authority.
"The NSW Food Authority is dedicated to protecting the health of NSW consumers and ensuring the food produced and sold in this state is safe and suitable for human consumption," said Bennett.
"The important work that our officers do in regularly inspecting and auditing food businesses helps to improve food safety standards and reduce the incidence of foodborne illness."