In an Asian store in the canton of Aargau, several inspections by food inspectors revealed significant deficiencies. The first inspection took place in July 2024. "The storage of food is inadequate", the report states.
Food was stored improperly, including defrosted fish in its own juice and plastic bags with unknown contents in the same container, as the "Aargauer Zeitung" writes.
The temperature in a freezer was also too high at -11.9 degrees instead of -16 degrees. The production room was inadequately cleaned and heavily soiled, the outside of the refrigerator was splattered and the door handle was sticky. "The bone saw was covered in dried residue that could not have been left over from the day of the inspection," it continued.
No "self-inspection"
A cutting board in the production room is also declared to be "heavily soiled" in the report. It could no longer be cleaned hygienically. And "operational hand-washing facilities with liquid soap dispensers and a hygienic facility for drying hands" were missing throughout the company.
"There is neither a self-monitoring concept nor corresponding control forms for temperature, incoming goods or cleaning checks", the report continues.
The owner was unable to provide the documents required for traceability. In addition, the store had changed its location without informing the office of its new address. The prescribed price information was also missing for various products.
First follow-up inspection brings no improvement
A follow-up inspection was finally carried out at the end of August. This showed that many of the deficiencies had not been rectified and still existed. A concept for "self-checking" was still missing and the hygiene problems had not been resolved.
Thawed fish was once again lying in melt water and crabs were stored unprotected in a freezer. The production room was still inadequately cleaned and there were no facilities for washing hands.
A third inspection took place in September. Some structural defects had been rectified, but the cleaning problems remained. The soap dispenser had not been refilled, which the inspectors criticized.
Due to the persistent violations of the Food Act, the owner was ultimately fined 2,500 francs and additional fees of 700 francs.
The editor wrote this article with the help of AI.