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Bike Ride food hygiene praised by Council

Latrobe City Council has praised Glengarry businesses & local community groups for maintaining extremely high standards of food hygiene during the Great Victorian Bike Ride that saw 4000 visitors converge on the township for an overnight stop

By Latrobe City Council - 10th December 2003 - Back to News

Latrobe City Mayor, Councillor Graeme Middlemiss, said Council’s Health Services team had been in attendance throughout the visit to Latrobe to ensure food safety standards were maintained, and they had been impressed with the extremely high standard attained.

"In addition to the 4000 or so riders and support staff, there were many other visitors to the township who came to see the riders, especially in the evening. Local businesses and community groups are to be congratulated on their ability to handle such an unprecedented demand for food without any standards being compromised," Cr Middlemiss said.

Cr Middlemiss said that Latrobe City had wanted to ensure that each and every visitor to Glengarry and the municipality left with great memories of the area - not a pain in the belly. "This was achieved through the planning and co-operation of the community, Bicycle Victoria and Latrobe City’s Health Services team," Cr Middlemiss said.

Latrobe City’s Service Development Officer Health Services, Phillip Clifford, said food safety for the Great Victorian Bike Ride’s visit to Glengarry, once it was announced, was identified as a major issue by Council’s Health Services Team.

"Apart from the demands on Glengarry businesses and community groups, the Great Victorian Bike Ride organisers had their own travelling commercial kitchen on a semi-trailer, with numerous other support vehicles for dry, chilled and frozen food storage," he explained.

"We made contact with Bicycle Victoria some months prior to the event, to discuss food safety issues such as staff being adequately trained, and to ensure that a Food Safety Plan was in place. In fact, the standard maintained by Bicycle Victoria in its own kitchen was excellent," Mr Clifford explained.

"The local Glengarry planning committee was also provided with food safety information to distribute to intending community group food vendors. Any person or organisation wanting to sell food was registered under the Food Act with Council and had to have skills and knowledge in safe food handling.

"On the first day, when the riders arrived in Glengarry, there were numerous places to get food such as the food premises located in the town - the bakery, the general store and the hotel. Then to support the local food businesses, the school, community groups and other commercial mobile food vendor businesses operated food stalls.

"The next morning, when the riders left Glengarry, there was a rest area set up at Traralgon South where the local school support group provided barbecued foods as well as muffins, drinks and confectionary," Mr Clifford said.

"All these groups had to comply with the food safety regulations and many had obtained extra infrastructure, for example, mobile cool rooms, and staff to cope with the huge demand," Mr Clifford explained.

"On both days, we visited each food outlet and conducted food safety assessments, including temperature checks, food handling techniques, personal hygiene, cleanliness and general protection of food from contamination.

"The outcome was that each local and community group food business should feel justly proud of the food safety standards that were maintained right throughout the visit," Mr Clifford said.

Mr Clifford added that a Bicycle Victoria co-ordinator had summed up the spirit of the safe food message maintained throughout the visit, in an announcement to the riders waiting to be fed.

"We have had the local health inspector here all day ensuring we do the right thing by you. Please do the right thing by yourself and wash your hands prior to meal time," he said.


Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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