Rogue Restaurants
I've been away for a couple of days on a Health and Safety course, hence my recent lack of blogging. I regularly go on courses - you might remember I refreshed my AED only last month - because it jogs the old memory and keeps my skills topped up. With my memory not being what it should that's crucially important.
Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with any more details about my course because today's topic is the BBC One series Rogue Restaurants.
It's a fly on the wall (or should that be in the soup?) series about the illegal and unhygienic practices going on in some UK restaurants. The series is presented by investigative journalist Matt Allwright, who also presents the similarly titled Rogue Traders show that busts the balls of dodgy tradesmen.
Last week it was the Harvester chain of restaurants under fire, with shocking undercover footage showing some of their employees serving floor contaminated food to unsuspecting members of the public. It also highlighted their practice of restocking the salad bar before the containers were empty, meaning food lingering at the bottom was likely to be several hours old before consumption.
This week's show highlighted how some London restaurants were routinely employing illegal foreign workers to reduce their staff costs. The illegal workers, forced to work long hours on a pittance, couldn't complain because they didn't really exist. They went to work scared of detection and without the legislative protection afforded to the rest of us.
Another disadvantage of the illegal foreign work force was that they had little concept of UK standards of food hygiene. To them it was acceptable to serve three-day-old food as long as it didn't smell bad.
It's compulsive viewing and it's certainly opened my eyes to a few of the goings on behind the kitchen door.
Next time you're at the salad bar remember that it's probably safer to aim for the top of the container!
Anyway, I'm not going to bore you with any more details about my course because today's topic is the BBC One series Rogue Restaurants.
It's a fly on the wall (or should that be in the soup?) series about the illegal and unhygienic practices going on in some UK restaurants. The series is presented by investigative journalist Matt Allwright, who also presents the similarly titled Rogue Traders show that busts the balls of dodgy tradesmen.
Last week it was the Harvester chain of restaurants under fire, with shocking undercover footage showing some of their employees serving floor contaminated food to unsuspecting members of the public. It also highlighted their practice of restocking the salad bar before the containers were empty, meaning food lingering at the bottom was likely to be several hours old before consumption.
This week's show highlighted how some London restaurants were routinely employing illegal foreign workers to reduce their staff costs. The illegal workers, forced to work long hours on a pittance, couldn't complain because they didn't really exist. They went to work scared of detection and without the legislative protection afforded to the rest of us.
Another disadvantage of the illegal foreign work force was that they had little concept of UK standards of food hygiene. To them it was acceptable to serve three-day-old food as long as it didn't smell bad.
It's compulsive viewing and it's certainly opened my eyes to a few of the goings on behind the kitchen door.
Next time you're at the salad bar remember that it's probably safer to aim for the top of the container!
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