Editorial: Food outlets can do better

If there is one thing we should have an absolute right to, it is the right to purchase and eat safe and hygienic food.

It was disturbing, to say the least, to read in Saturday's Bay of Plenty Times Weekend that nearly half of all food outlets in the Western Bay have failed their first attempt to adhere to standard food hygiene requirements.

Now this doesn't mean that many food outlets across the region are walking disaster areas.

What it means is that nearly half of outlets listed with Tauranga City Council in recent years required "requisitions" to registration applications under the Food Hygiene Regulations Act, 1974.

These requisitions are conditions or advice food outlet owners must follow to obtain registration with either Tauranga or Western Bay councils.

The requisitions cover a wide range of shortcomings from simply failing to display a registration certificate to having issues with rodents.

Toi Te Ora, which provides public health services to the people of the Bay of Plenty, also confirmed to us it had investigated 38 food complaints since July 1, 2010.

Among the more disturbing of the complaints included one of a cockroach being allegedly found in chips bought from KFC Gate Pa and a complaint of glass in a coffee at Muffin Break Bayfair.

Should we be concerned with what we are buying and consuming from food outlets?

Yes, we certainly should. We must be able to have confidence in what we are buying when we hand over money for our lunch, takeaways or fish and chips for dinner.

While some things can be spotted and avoided, there are many other dangerous, invisible bugs and germs that can find their way into our bodies from food.

We shouldn't have to deal with the after-effects of such things.

For this reason we have to have faith in the likes of the councils and Toi Te Ora Public Health to champion our rights to safe food.

The councils are correct to insist that food outlets are completely compliant with the rules and regulations in place.

Slight slips can lead to greater slips and problems.

And Toi Te Ora must investigate complaints with timeliness and thoroughness.

Our health and safety demand these measures are taken.