Food poisoning cases soar at Birmingham restaurants
Aug 20 2010 By Emma McKinney
Food poisoning cases at Birmingham restaurants and take aways have rocketed during the recession with cases of food fraud and cut backs in cleaning also on the increase.
Environmental health officers at Birmingham City Council said the number of cases of suspected food poisoning had risen by more than 25 per cent in the last year and found businesses have been left so strapped for cash they have resorted to buying products such as meat and alcohol from illegal traders.
He said 1,610 cases of suspected food poisoning were reported to them by Birmingham doctors between April 2009 and April 2010 – the highest number of cases in six years.
There was a rise of 423 more cases than the team had to probe during the same period in 2008 and 2009, when 1,187 cases were investigated.
Nick Lowe, the council’s food safety team manager, blamed the economic downturn on the number of suspected food poisoning cases in Birmingham.
“There definitely seems to be a link between the recession and a deterioration in hygiene standards and an increase in suspected food poisoning cases in the last year,” he said.
“If businesses are short of money they will cut back in areas such as cleaning and we have seen an increase in the last year in food fraud.”
He said the council has been so concerned about a rise in food fraud that it has sent a crack team of officers to restaurants and take-aways across the city to investigate the issue.
“We’ve made some grim findings,” he added. “In one place we found boxes of chicken and when we asked the owner where they got it from they said they didn’t know.
“When we got to the bottom of it, we found they were being phoned by an illegal trader and paying cash for deliveries but they had no idea where the meat came from or if it met the necessary standards.
“We also found firms which were trying to pass off meat as coming from reputable traders but when we checked the paperwork it was clearly from unsavoury sources.
“The problem is they have no clue as to where the products have come from or whether they meet the required food safety regulations, which leaves people at risk of food poisoning.”
The figures come as a Birmingham Post investigation can also reveal the shocking levels of poor hygiene in the kitchens of some of the city’s top restaurants.
