Greenish meat, outdated or frozen foods for too long, cold rooms that are too hot or mouse droppings in the premises: the results of sanitary controls, carried out between 2022 and 2023 in the food sector, do not reassure. The Federal Food Safety Office published compiled data for the first time.
Among the restaurants visited, the health risk was deemed “considerable” or “high” during a four control, reports the “Tages-Anzeiger”. In 2023, more than 20,500 administrative measures were pronounced against restaurants, that is to say much more than in 2022, according to the German -fashioned daily. In around 2500 of the cases, goods have been destroyed.
“The health of our customers is essential. We take this seriously, ”reacts Roman Helfer, director of the Federation of Home and Taste Trades. Before adding: “We must also be wary of the conclusions of such statistics. In this case, the checks were carried out in establishments where problems are suspected, or which have already had it. ” These bad students may also have been checked more than once, and the report should therefore not be taken as an empirical panorama of cleanliness in restaurants.
Several causes are advanced. “When we lack staff, we often start by saving on hygiene,” says Otmar Deflorin, Bernese cantonal chemist. Patrik Hasler-Olbrych, director of Gastrosuisse, also points out “the strong increase in the costs of staff, goods and energy, as well as too lax, even non-existent, standards in certain cantons”.
Roman Helfer still puts it into perspective: “Not all breaches must be corrected, but not all are dangers for consumers.” He evokes broken tiles in the kitchen or a joint that has not been repaired, and also recalls that an operator is not necessarily the owner of an establishment, and that sometimes the budget is lacking for repairs.
Roman Helfer joins the director of Gastrosuisse on one point: basic training and continuous training would limit shortcoming. “In the canton of Vaud, training is necessary to have the authorization to operate, and it is issued by the teams of the cantonal chemist,” he says. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere, when you have to accompany and prevent rather than cure. ”
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