Food Act breach leads to record setting fine
Tuesday 24 September 2013 @ 11.39 a.m. | Trade & Commerce
A catering company has been given one of the heaviest food offence fines in history for breaching Victoria’s Food Act 1984 (VIC) after a young boy nearly died due to an allergic reaction.
This month a Melbourne magistrates court ordered Manor on High in Epping to pay $55,000 after a waiter served Robert Surace, 8, a frozen dessert and ''guaranteed'' it was dairy-free. It was vanilla ice-cream.
The family had notified the venue of Robert’s allergies numerous times prior to the event. During the evening they were forced to intervene when waiters served Robert pasta with parmesan cheese and steak with gravy. After one lick of the ice-cream he immediately went into anaphylactic shock.
The magistrate convicted the company for ''falsely describing'' food with the knowledge the consumer relying on the information could ''suffer physical harm''.
The incident has spurred Robert’s mother to campaign for key reforms in the restaurant and catering industry.
''A loss of life, severe illness or brain damage cannot be overlooked due to someone's negligence to follow correct procedures or simply understand [anaphylaxis].''
Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia president Maria Said is advocating for the introduction of a national allergy management plan and mandatory allergy training for restaurant staff.
However, the industry's peak body Restaurant and Catering Australia (RCA) snubbed the suggestion, saying an agreement struck between the RCA and the allergy group through Food Standards Australia New Zealand last year was sufficient to moderate risk.
The agreement requires restaurants to know the ingredients and handle customers' allergy queries, said the RCA's chief executive John Hart.
Gezim Oxha the owner of Manor on High reported that within a month of the incident employees were retrained, the manual updated and new procedures imposed.
''Every special dietary meal is now prepared by a dedicated person responsible for these special dishes and the dishes are marked with a coloured flag so a mix up of dishes cannot occur."
TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.
