Pizza restaurant fined $60,000 for tough topping
An award-winning Italian restaurant with "pizzas to die for" has been fined $60,000 after a diner ingested a wire bristle cooked in one of its pizzas.
The 3cm bristle from an oven cleaning brush made its way into the crust of the pizza and became stuck in the man's throat.
An X-ray taken at Frankston Hospital confirmed a metal object was lodged in his throat.
He underwent emergency surgery and spent several days in hospital.
The horror dining experience happened in October at DOC Mornington - one of three restaurants operated by the award-winning DOC group that are recommended in the Good Food Guide.
In Dromana Magistrates' Court, the restaurant pleaded guilty to four charges under the Food Act 1984, including the sale of unsafe food.
A review on DOC's Facebook page claims it has the "best pizza in Melbourne" and "the light, crispy bases are to die for" - something with which the victim may disagree.
Full details of the incident have only come to light after the restaurant's addition last week to the Health Department's food safety "name and shame" database.
A pizza shop in Ballarat also was added to the list - more than a year after a salmonella outbreak that left 19 people ill, including a man, 82, who died days later.
That pizza shop was fined $50,000 in December.
The Sunday Herald Sun has learned the owner was forced to sell to cover costs.
An eastern suburbs pizza shop also made the food convictions register recently after its three owners were fined $10,000 each in October for failing to comply with a council order to meet certain safety standards.
A court was told a customer had seen an infestation of cockroaches in the restaurant, including one that ran across her son's pizza moments after he had taken a bite.
DOC Mornington managing director Tony Nicolini said he was "deeply regretful" over the wire incident.
But he said blame should be directed at the faulty cleaning equipment, and his restaurant's food and hygiene was impeccable.
"I'm a very pedantic operator with several restaurants," he said.
"We have copped this on the chin. We took the blame for a product that failed, and we've now gone to the suppliers and asked them to remove it from shelves.
"These sorts of things can destroy businesses. Our systems have been reviewed and our equipment is a lot more scrutinised."
Dozens of Victorian eateries have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for breaching health and food-handling laws in the past year.
Source: The Herald Sun, 30 April 2013
