Infestation Food Inspectors

If you're feeling hungry, here's a figure to chew on.

Every year there are one million cases of food poisoning in the UK.

That means that 20,000 of us are struck down each week.

Luckily for us, there's a group of people

dedicated to doing something about it,

an army of men and women who have the power

to close down any business selling food and drink.

So who are these hygiene heroes looking out for you and me?

They are the Food Inspectors.

This week, we see what happens when the Food Inspectors call

at one London restaurant.

There's a cockroach running there, you see it?

And the terrifying truth about the dangers we face when eating out.

This stuff, I'm telling you, you have to take out and dispose of.

-All right.

-Now.

I'll discover what could be lurking in your hotel kitchen.

A cremated chicken wing. Lovely!

I'll be in the lab looking at

the number one cause of food poisoning.

65% of all raw chicken has Campylobacter.

And as most of us have lunch at our desks,

I'll be revealing the dangers.

I think you may find one or two living organisms in here.

Possibly more than that.

It's a nightmare scenario.

A mouse scuttles across the floor of your restaurant.

There's a cockroach in the breadbasket.

Well, the Food Inspectors have seen it all too often.

Pest infestations are the number one reason

why 1,000 food outlets were shut down last year.

You've got to watch out - cos the bugs are about.

Yes, it's an infest-igation in Brent,

North London, home to a quarter of a million people,

2,000 food outlets, a whole load of creepy crawlies,

and a Lebanese restaurant that could be getting into

a whole load of trouble.

Petra serves over 50 meals a day and is owned by this man - Mr Kalani.

His restaurant was closed down last week

when Food Inspector Andreas Kirschner

found it crawling with cockroaches.

I think, really, it's always the sheer numbers of insects

that you encounter which is really, really off-putting.

Also, their faeces have a very specific smell

and it really goes into your nose.

Not only did Andreas find cockroaches,

he also found evidence of mice.

The owner says he's tackled the problem.

But if the infestation is still there,

Mr Kalani will not be able to open for business.

So, what have you done?

Everything.

Everything meaning what? You have cleaned.

I can see it's cleaner.

I think it's best if I have a look for myself.

Andreas is no slouch. He knows exactly where to look for pests

and after 10 minutes,

he's already discovered what he's after.

What's going on under here?

There's a cockroach running, you see it.

One dead and one barely alive one.

So basically that means you still have an on-going infestation.

OK, OK.

Cockroaches are really very dirty bugs.

They thrive in dark, moist places,

eat just about anything, including faeces,

and spread diseases all over our food.

To get rid of all of them, OK,

that may involve moving all that out

and cleaning and scraping the whole floor, yeah?

It's not looking good for Mr Kalani and now there's even more bad news.

You still have some mouse droppings in here.

They are old mouse droppings.

Well, I don't know if they are old or not.

And you can see there's some more in this corner,

and here as well, you see.

All these black spots there, yeah.

OK, let's have a look down here.

Mice carry both E. coli and salmonella,

two of the biggest causes of food poisoning.

They can also squeeze through pencil-sized holes,

so it's important to keep all your food in sealed containers.

This is opened stuff here.

This, you have to throw away as we agreed,

so if you want to get the rubbish bag now and throw it away

so I can witness that, OK?

Getting rid of cockroaches and mice is not easy.

It's something best left to the professionals.

You can't reopen, yeah, OK? There's no way.

Every day the restaurant is not open,

the owner is losing money.

The question is, can he clear up before he goes bust?

Closing down places can be tough on traders,

but when you know that up to 200 people every year

die of food poisoning,

then you realise it's something, sometimes, that just has to be done.

I'll be back later on to see how

Andreas tackles the food outlets whose bad practice

could put our lives at risk.

You are exposing your customers to getting food poisoning.

Now, though, we're off to Northamptonshire

and the market town of Kettering.

It has 80,000 people, 800 food outlets

and one woman who deserves really good music to introduce her.

MUSIC: "Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys

Probably not the best place to keep your skewers.

There are some bits of food.

I don't think you should be in the kitchen. You're not

wearing your uniform. Standards are not good.

They could also be a fire hazard.

It just doesn't look very professional.

Yes, meet Eleni Vasilopoulou.

She knows what it's like

to be on the other side of kitchen inspections,

cos she used to work in them.

So don't say she doesn't know what she's talking about.

I loved being a chef, I loved cooking.

I loved the buzz of the kitchen.

I worked in London for about seven or eight years

in professional kitchens.

It has really helped when

somebody will try to lie to me or pretend that

they have cleaned somewhere when they actually haven't,

so, you know, a business that tries to fool us doesn't always work,

because we know what they are up to.

Today Eleni is paying a visit to the Naseby hotel

in the centre of town.

-Are you surprised to see me?

-Yeah.

Last inspection wasn't very good, was it?

Yes, correct.

OK. There were some changes to the staff in the kitchen?

Correct. The head chef who was here before is gone.

-Right.

-We've got two new chefs in the kitchen.

Eleni found cleanliness and staff training

far below the required standard on her last visit a month ago.

She told the management she wanted big improvements - and fast.

And no wonder.

The hotel hosts functions for up to 150 people

and the restaurant can cater for around 60 guests a day.

And all those meals are prepared here.

Are you using this? Or is it disused?

Disused equipment is one of my pet hates

because it collects dust and bacteria you don't need.

You can sell it on eBay, make some money

and take everyone out for a drink.

I think cleaning as they go along is the answer to this.

It just doesn't look great.

Feels a bit sticky as well.

That looks a bit suspicious.

A cremated chicken wing - lovely!

What are these for?

Really?

Really? Have you heard of oven gloves?

Chef, have you heard of oven gloves?

-Which one is yours?

-That one.

Thank you. So we're going to put these in the bin, yeah?

There's food spillages already on that and nobody's actually bothered.

-You got a whip?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Crack it sometimes.

It really helps.

The inspection goes from bad to worse.

Health hazards in the fridge...

This is cooked and this is obviously raw on the same tray.

..and dangers in the storage areas too.

I know it's just a flour lid

but it shows that they are not taking much pride

in how they cover their food.

Open and uncovered, these bags make tempting targets.

I'm a bit worried, because...

you haven't got a pest problem, have you?

-You haven't got mice, have you?

-No.

This is a perfect environment

for a mouse to just eat away at all this lovely, dry food.

Do you have petty cash available to you?

-Yes.

-Just send somebody out to the shop, please,

and get some food-safe containers with lids.

The problem that I've got, wherever I see

bits of food on shelving,

I keep worrying that there is a little friend gnawing at the bags.

Happily, there are no mice here,

but then, mice aren't the only things that bite.

OK, this is interesting. Somebody just went...

like that. You can tell.

Yeah?

The...I really can't stand cheese.

Yeah. It needs to be wrapped and looked after.

Be careful, don't spill it everywhere and slip.

No.

It's not improved, really.

I want to help them,

but then there's only so many times I can tell them something.

I am considering serving some improvement notices,

but I'm not sure yet.

I'll have to take a few deep breaths and reconsider a few things.

Legal notices would force the hotel

to clean up and improve staff training,

or risk prosecution and closure.

It's the owner's responsibility, but for now,

Eleni gives her warning to manager Sebastien.

I know you guys want to do well, I can see that you want to do well,

otherwise you wouldn't be taking notes.

But you need to crack the whip as well.

Stop being so nice, yeah?

The hotel has a series of functions booked over the next few weeks.

It needs to improve standards - urgently.

I'm going to lose sleep, I think, if I don't sort them out.

I really felt like just doing all the cleaning for them today,

I really did.

Which doesn't fill me with confidence.

Eleni has to decide whether to serve legal notices

when she returns in a week's time.

Inspectors like Eleni may be able

to enter premises where foods are prepared commercially,

but they have no right to go into our homes, which, ironically,

are where most food poisoning outbreaks start.

Their powers don't extend to most workplaces, either,

and they present their own dangers.

Now a massive two thirds of all office workers

have their lunch at their desks,

and most of them don't clean up before they eat.

Now, a recent report claims that our desks in the office

are covered in bacteria

and some of our keyboards are dirtier than our toilets.

Still hungry?

Well, they are at this central London office,

and all that might be about to change.

Today our own Food Inspector, Ben Milligan,

is joining me on a visit to this IT company.

Most staff here eat and drink at their desks.

It's coming up to lunchtime

and they have no idea we're dropping in.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Can I have your attention, please?

I can tell you now that you are just about to have

a food inspection, so if you could all stand up,

don't touch a thing, OK, and just step away from your desk.

17 million people suffered from a tummy bug last year,

and that caused nearly 11 million lost working days.

Want to know some of the more surprising hazards

of eating lunch in the office? OK.

Well, your desk surface is likely to contain

100 times more bacteria than a kitchen table.

Your keyboard is constantly accumulating dirt -

up to two grams of it every month.

Compared to men,

the average female office worker

has up to four times the amount

of germs in, on,

and around her work area.

So, I need a woman.

In the interests of research, of course! It looks quite a clean desk.

That's the thing, these things do look clean

but it's the things you can't see lurking that are the problem.

-You washed your hands, obviously, before you ate your sandwich?

-I did.

But I've seen you beavering away. Answered the phone?

Not that phone, my mobile.

There's a risk, for a start.

Unless you clean your mobile regularly,

it's likely to be harbouring germs and...ready for this?

Research has shown that 16% of handsets

are contaminated with faeces.

Would you mind if we tested your phone?

-No, I don't mind.

-Are you sure?

-Yes.

-It might put you off your cheese sandwich.

-It's a good diet, yeah!

-I'm not hungry any more.

-Oh, no!

Ben's environmental monitor is a good indicator

of surface contamination.

Anything above 1,000 means it shouldn't be anywhere near food.

THEY LAUGH

Did you get that reading? Way over what it should be.

It's not filthy.

-It's certainly not clean.

-Yes.

I shall be cleaning it from now on.

Tough economic times have made eating in more popular.

Nearly three quarters of us now take our own food to work

at least once a week.

The credit crunch lunch may be easier on the pocket.

Not necessarily on your health.

-When did you come in?

-Eleven o'clockish.

-So it's been out of refrigeration for a couple of hours?

-Yes.

Right, so what does that mean for the temperature? Ben checks.

Without refrigeration it's warmed up

to a point where it could be hazardous.

At the minute it's about 19 degrees.

Between eight and 63,

that's when bacteria love to play around and multiply,

so if you're leaving it at room temperature,

then you've got four hours, really.

So after four hours, you would either

bring it back under temperature control,

get it less than eight degrees or chuck it away.

Have you had your lunch yet?

-I have.

-What did you have?

-I had a baguette.

-A baguette from a shop?

-Yes.

-Did you eat it here?

-I did.

-OK.

-I don't eat off there, it's fine.

-But you touch there and then eat?

Yeah. Well, I normally eat it

then I'll wash my hands and then I'll eat.

So you never touch the keyboard in between mouthfuls?

-Yeah, probably.

-OK. Another hidden risk.

Keyboards are a playground for bacteria

unless you sanitise them regularly.

And here's a horrible thought - if your office has mice,

they can leave droppings on the keyboard

as they search for food at night. Eurgh!

There's a lot of hair.

THEY LAUGH

Little short hairs.

Do you want to take a swab off his keyboard?

I think we'd better.

Yeah, I'd be very interested,

cos that is very similar to my office,

and I think you may find

one or two living organisms in there.

Maybe more!

-HE LAUGHS

-Possibly more than that.

Ben's inspection shows if you eat your lunch at your desk,

there's a lot more danger than you may think.

So, to avoid those unwelcome sick days,

here are a few rules to remember.

Make sure you tip up and clean your keyboard on a regular basis

to get rid of crumbs and grease.

Wipe your phone, especially your mobile,

with a sanitiser to keep it germ free.

Store your lunch in the fridge

instead of on your desk.

And always use the microwave

if your office has one.

We're back in Brent

where it is the job of Food Inspector Andreas Kirschner

to keep the people of North London free from food poisoning.

But he's also part of the bigger picture,

because Andreas collects swabs and samples

which go into a national survey on food hygiene.

He's a busy guy.

-I'm from Brent Council, from Environmental Health.

-Yes.

This means sampling chopping boards,

kitchen equipment and surfaces, even the employees...

Thank you very much.

..and then sending it to the Health Protection Agency.

While most swabs taken from the study come back clear,

for one kebab shop, there is a worry.

We found a great number of Enterobacteriaceae.

To you and I, this means that the sample from that shop

contained more than 100 species of bacteria

that are normally found in your intestines.

It's an indicator for poor food hygiene,

temperature control and especially poor cleaning.

We also found some quite high number of E. coli and Listeria.

E. coli can cause serious illness in healthy adults,

and even death in the young and elderly.

Listeria can cause miscarriages.

So results like this call for an urgent revisit.

Now, here's something you didn't know.

Andreas is Brent's undisputed kebab expert.

If people knew what's in their kebab,

I think they wouldn't eat it.

We've done extensive studies with kebabs. I mean,

we did extensive study of what's in them, actually,

and we found, obviously, there's extremely high levels of fat,

saturated fat, salt...

..and obviously the quality of the meat in the kebab

is not great at all, so...

Hi, there. Hiya.

From Environmental Health, yeah?

So we're just going to wait a minute

until the proprietor arrives.

Now, with a Health Inspector at the counter, you might expect

-the staff to do things by the book.

-OK.

Not this chap.

What you doing with the stuff in there?

This is not cooked. I can see it's cold, man.

I'm going to have to go in now, yeah?

The man is adamant that the kebab is cooked.

The inspector's thermometer proves otherwise,

and if the meat hasn't been heated properly,

the risk of food poisoning is huge.

Before you hot-hold it, yeah, you have to heat it.

Yeah, I did heat it.

No, you didn't heat it, because this is 21 Celsius.

I heat it, then a customer comes here,

that's why I leave it, then I sell it...

No, no, no. You heat the food to above 75 Celsius

when you reheat it, yeah?

And then you can hot-hold it.

But this food...listen.

It's 12.26. You open at what time?

About half past eleven.

Eleven thirty. So you are telling me

this one has been heated

and has cooled down to 21 Celsius

and from heating to get cold again,

and now you putting it there and keeping it warm, yeah?

So this stuff I'm telling you, you have to take out

and dispose of. Now. OK?

And off it goes.

The owner arrives.

He was already in trouble after the swab tests

showed E. coli and Listeria present on his premises.

After what Andreas has just seen,

he's now in deep.

This is completely unacceptable.

This item clearly has come out of your fridge.

It's sitting there for an hour, now your staff are cutting off the food.

It really clearly shows that your staff,

they haven't got a clue.

The least thing I'm going to do today, I'm going to serve

a hygiene improvement notice for training,

because in my opinion, yeah,

your staff, they are not trained adequately.

You are exposing your customers to getting food poisoning.

If you poison somebody,

you will be liable personally and you know,

whatever compensation comes your way

is not going to be in the hundreds, yeah?

It's going to be in the tens of thousands

if you cause food poisoning on any sort of scale, yeah?

It was clear from the time when I walked in

that they didn't know exactly what food hygiene means.

That is quite clear if you cut off raw meat

and just put it into a heating dish,

it's really, really bad.

They haven't got a clue about food hygiene.

They do not know the basics, yeah?

Which is scary, yeah,

because there's a good chance that they'll poison somebody.

The owner has three weeks to comply

with the improvement notice.

If he doesn't, he'll be committing a punishable offence.

If you want to avoid being struck down by food poisoning,

you need to know what to look out for.

Three quarters of confirmed cases are caused by

just five types of bacteria,

and one particular bug makes around 1,000 of us ill every week.

This is Campylobacter. The daddy,

the number one cause of all food poisoning.

It looks pretty harmless in a Petri dish there.

Let's have a look at it under the microscope.

Well, as you can see, they're spiral shaped bacteria with flagella.

Well, tails to you and me,

and they will help them swim and fly up and down your body.

So where does Campylobacter come from?

Well, a popular breeding ground is unpasteurised milk,

and unpasteurised cheese,

but this is the biggest culprit.

The innocent chicken.

65% of all raw chicken has Campylobacter. Amazing.

So what are the symptoms? Well...

vomiting, diarrhoea,

stomach pain, stomach cramps

and you'll probably have a fever.

And this can last up to ten days.

So how do we avoid Campylobacter?

Well, think about hygiene in the kitchen.

That means washing your hands regularly.

Always cook your meat thoroughly.

Now, poultry should reach the temperature of 74 degrees Celsius,

and by the way, all those people that are washing your chicken,

that doesn't help.

That merely splashes the bacteria

all over the kitchen.

So to avoid becoming another food poisoning statistic, remember -

wash your hands regularly,

especially after you've put food packaging in the bin.

Never ever wash raw chicken.

When storing food in the fridge,

keep raw meat away from everything else.

And when you're eating leftovers,

always reheat thoroughly.

A week after her visit to Kettering's Naseby Hotel,

Food Inspector Eleni Vasilopoulou is back.

Only this time, she's packing.

She has three enforcement notices demanding an improvement

in hygiene, staff training and building structure.

If they don't comply with these hygiene improvement notices,

then that's a direct offence,

and we will be going to court

due to non-compliance with the notices.

It's serious stuff,

although the boss of the hotel doesn't seem

to be treating the matter with too much urgency.

Still waiting to hear from you from last week.

Yes, I'm still waiting for my boss to find out what...

Oh, really?

-Oh, he's here now?

-Yeah.

-That's good.

-He's here.

I've decided that I'm going to be serving notices.

It's good that's he's here, so I can explain it to him properly.

-These are the actual notices.

-Yeah.

I can wait until he gets off the phone and explain it to him as well.

He is very busy today as well.

Yeah? Yeah, OK.

-Yeah. If you just...

-Yeah, yeah, thanks.

His boss is apparently very busy today.

It really upsets me when people say they are very busy.

We just have to wait now to see if he's got time to see me.

I'll try not to get really annoyed on camera.

I just want to barge through the door.

He's still on the phone.

He's still on the phone. OK.

Do I have to wait?

If you've got an hour to spare, yes?

Well, he can have his... we can have his call interrupted.

This is important, as you can appreciate.

I appreciate this, but he's busy trying to resolve other issues.

They are legal documents so they have to be followed.

This business needs to demonstrate that they are willing to help.

If an owner of the business is too busy

to speak to the Environmental Health Officer,

then it's not good, it's poor.

It shows that they don't put food safety first.

Eventually they will pay for it.

In Brent, Andreas Kirschner has gone back to the Lebanese restaurant

he closed down because it was infested with mice and cockroaches.

You can't be open, there's no way.

The owner, Mr Kalani, has to prove that he's dealt with the problem

and that means producing two pest control reports saying it's all clear.

OK, so it says here,

"No cockroaches or mice have been found in the shop."

And on the 23rd it says "We did check for mice, did not find signs.

"We did check for cockroaches - did not find signs of them."

OK, so you have two clear reports there as required.

That means we'll have a look around, yeah?

Now we look here, there's nothing in there.

That's a clear trap up here. Great.

-Again, that trap is clear as well.

-So far, so good.

Now, I think the last time, the mouse droppings,

we had them on this side, yeah?

OK, so there's no new droppings here. Trap is clear.

But with no money coming in, the owner desperately needs to be given the all clear

-and allowed to reopen.

-OK, well, it seems you are clear.

It seems the infestations have been eliminated

and you can reopen your premises. OK? Great.

It's good news for Mr Kalani but he's not getting off scot-free.

Andreas will be paying him weekly visits

to make sure the problems don't come back.

Eleni returns to the Naseby Hotel,

and this time the owner does speak to her.

He'd hired a new chef who's able to reassure her

that all the problems she's identified have been addressed.

Yes, they've complied with the notices.

Everything is labelled, and he is keeping records of temperatures,

so I am much happier today with what they've done.

I really want them to get even better but at the moment I am happy

to walk away and say well done, and we'll see you again in nine months.

Three weeks after serving legal notices,

Andreas returns to find Master Kebab vastly improved.

As well as imposing strict food handling systems including cooking kebabs thoroughly,

Manager Nadim has also put every employee

through a level two Food Hygiene course.

I have to be very, very careful how we're cooking the food,

and where we are keeping it and at what temperature.

Food safety is very important for me.

Nice! Andreas will come back again in six months to make sure

standards are being maintained.

That's it for another eye-opening half hour with the Food Inspectors.

I hope we've given you some useful advice on how to eat safely

and I really hope we haven't put you off your dinner.

-See you next time. Bye.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd