Chicken wholesaler falls foul of authorities

Wollongong chicken wholesaler Mavrikis Chickens has been fined $1320 and placed on the NSW Food Authority's name and shame list.The Atchison St company was penalised $660 for not complying with the requirements of a food safety scheme and $660 for operating a food transport vehicle without the necessary licence.

The company had not completed records monitoring required by the safety scheme and had received previous warnings, the authority said.

Owner Christos Mavrikis said there had been another inspection since the fines were received in May and the business now met the required standards.

''Of course I take it seriously - it's your livelihood and it's food safety,'' Mr Mavrikis said. He said the business had not been recording chicken temperatures on dispatch, while several other ''small things'', including a broken light fitting in a freezer, had contributed to the penalty.

In relation to the transport fine, Mr Mavrikis said he had recently bought a new van but hadn't transferred the licence.

He said he should have contested the penalty.

''It was a state-of-the-art, brand new van, $40,000 and fully refrigerated,'' he said.

''If I was delivering it in an unsafe manner it would have been an issue, but it was all fully compliant with food safety regulations, there's no doubt about that.''

A NSW Food Authority spokeswoman confirmed the issues had been addressed since the details of the penalties were published in June.

Source: Illawarra Mercury, 18 July 2012