Health inspectors recently found a number of serious food safety violations during a surprise inspection at a business establishment on Lower All Saints Road, including expired products on the shelves and evidence of roach and rodent infestations.
The Central Board of Health (CBH) conducted the unannounced visit as part of ongoing routine inspections across the region, according to Chief Health Inspector (CHI) Sharon Martin.
“We just appear because we want to catch you in your normal self, how you do things, how you have things running,” Martin explained. “We don’t inform you that you can do a cleanup before we come to give the wrong impression.”
The inspection team discovered multiple violations, including expired food items that had “long passed their time” and clear signs of pest infestation. While inspectors did not observe rats directly, Martin said the evidence was unmistakable.
“The droppings and the scent of the urine, the odor from the urine is what lets us know rats are moving around here,” she stated.
The expired food items were immediately removed and taken to the Cook’s Sanitary Landfill, where they were crushed and buried to prevent retrieval by landfill pickers.
Meanwhile, Martin accused some businesses of deliberately deceiving customers by strategically placing expired products behind fresh ones on shelves. This practice, she claims, leads to customers unknowingly purchasing spoiled goods.
The expired goods, they put them at the back and at the front, they put those that have the right date,” Martin said. “Next thing, an expired can of milk or whatever, you pick up and you may only detect it at the time when you are about to use it.”
When customers return to complain, businesses often claim the products expired after purchase, shifting blame to consumers.
The CBH is urging shoppers to be more vigilant when purchasing food items. Martin emphasized that consumers should inspect products at the point of purchase rather than after arriving home.
“Look at the expiry date of these things. Look for signs that they have been rat-bitten or they’re having like insect infestation,” she advised. “The time for inspection is at the establishment. See what you’re buying, know what you’re buying.”
The CBH typically takes an educational approach with first-time offenders, working with business owners to improve food safety practices. However, repeat violations carry serious consequences.
“If we find another time we go there, we make a routine visit and it’s the same occurrence, then that manager can be taken before the magistrate because it is against the law to be offering for sale anything that is unwholesome for public use,” Martin warned.
She indicated the CBH will continue conducting surprise inspections at establishments throughout the island. She noted that while not all businesses engage in these practices, “a few of them have been engaged in that”.
The Chief Health Inspector also recommended that businesses implement better inventory management, rotate stock properly, note when products are approaching expiration dates to allow for clearance sales.
