Rat and cockroach droppings and a pair of old shoes were among the discoveries in the bakery and butchery of a Walmer Park retail store.
Concerns over hygiene and cleanliness at the Pick n Pay store in Walmer Park were raised by the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s deputy director of environmental health, Dr Patrick Nodwele, during a food blitz at the store on Wednesday.
Nodwele led a team of environmental health inspectors and ANC councillor Siphiwo Tshaka through restaurants and retail stores at Walmer Park, while a second team inspected the Moffet on Main centre.
The group of inspectors, dressed in white overcoats, have the authority to issue fines for improper food handling, storage, preparation, marking and waste disposal.
As Nodwele and his team looked under a cabinet in the butchery at the Pick n Pay store, he noticed a pile-up of dirt and asked a worker at the store to sweep it out.
As the worker swept, a pair of shoes, papers, plastic, dirt and rat poison emerged from under the storage cabinet.
Inside the butchery, there was sticky grime in the corners laced with rat droppings.
Heidi Marais, of the department of health, who inspected the bakery, found cockroach droppings there.
She recommended that the store deep-cleans and gets pest control to deal with the cockroaches and rats.
“The problem with the bakery is that you always have things lying around – crumbs, flour, so there is a lot of food.
“But a deep-clean now and then, a good pest control and cockroach gel in the cupboards and it will be sorted,” she said.
Pick n Pay store manager Gerald Smith declined to comment.
But Pick n Pay commented on a Facebook post by HeraldLIVE: “We are aware of a video being circulated via HeraldLive of an inspection by the health department of our Walmer Store.
“The municipal health department arrived at the store, and after the inspection our understanding was that they had found nothing of concern.
“Once we saw the video, we consulted with our pest control service providers and have asked them to check the store very carefully again and report back to us immediately.
“In the meantime, our staff have done a full inspection and the store is clean.”
The Woolworths food outlet at the mall refused to allow the media to enter its storeroom and food preparation areas, saying that permission had to be granted by head office.
However, the environmental safety team was let in.
The Mugg & Bean restaurant allowed the media to enter its kitchen.
The inspectors found that the kitchen staff were exposed to heat stress as the vents were not working properly, and that the store had an outdated certificate of acceptability as the policy had changed.
Store manager Cheil Sciocatti said the vents would be fixed the same day.
Nodwele said the inspections were necessary because it signalled that food safety was important across the metro.
The department has done food safety checks in Korsten, Central, Kwazakhele and in Uitenhage.
“We are looking at whether the facilities are certified to handle foodstuff, in terms of the certificate of acceptability.
“We are also looking at the manner of handling – is food handled in a way that ensures it is safe and still maintains the quality which is good for the consumer?”
Though he had found that most stores were compliant, Nodwele said he had noted some challenges.
“There are challenges here and there. As we have picked up, some of the facilities have had infestations with rodents and other vermin.
“In some stores, we noted that there was no clarity on their waste management.
“When somebody removes waste from these facilities, that removal is supposed to be registered and we must know where that waste is going.
“There were those gaps here and there but, generally, most of the facilities were found to be compliant,” he said.
The department has to give food establishments timeframes in which to fix the problems.
The stores will be visited again in 2019 to ensure that they have implemented the recommendations.