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Judge rules council was right to close restaurant selling burgers with pink meat in the middle (14 December 2015)

Date: 14/12/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Judge rules council was right to close restaurant selling burgers with pink meat in the middle

A judge has ruled that environmental health officers from Portsmouth City Council were right to ban a Southsea restaurant from selling burgers that were pink in the middle.

In April 2015, Portsmouth City Council placed an emergency hygiene notice on the food outlet 6oz Burgers, because the business did not have a proper system to ensure the undercooked burgers were safe.

The restaurant stopped selling pink burgers and the council withdrew the notice – but the business challenged the basis of the notice in court.

District judge Anthony Callaway has now ruled that the council was justified in imposing the ban, because the pink burgers presented an imminent health risk.

Portsmouth Council's Environmental Health Manager, Richard Lee, said:

“The council's job is to protect public health – in doing this, we follow the guidance of the national Food Standards Agency.

“A crucial difference between a rare steak and a rare burger is that if the surface of a steak is contaminated by bacteria, they stay on the surface and are killed by proper cooking.

“In a burger, the meat is minced, so the surface part of the meat is mixed in with the rest.

“The FSA's advice to the public is that they should cook burgers until none of the meat is pink.

“The FSA's advice to councils is that they should take action against businesses serving undercooked meat, to protect public health – unless a proper method is used to make it safe.

“The heart of this case was the absence of a proper method, which the council believed put the public at imminent risk. This is why we issued an emergency notice, banning the sale of undercooked burgers.

“Backing our position in court was lead public health microbiologist James McLauchlin from Public Health England.

“We always try to support businesses and work with them on issues like this, so enforcement action or legal proceedings are avoided.

“Councillor Robert New – our Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Safety – arranged a meeting between environmental health officers and the company directors in an attempt to resolve the issue, but regrettably the business chose not to work with us and went on with their legal challenge to the notice.

“We're glad the court supported our work to protect the health of the public.”

Director of policy at the Food Standards Agency (FSA), Steve Wearne, added:

“The FSA welcomes this result for Portsmouth City Council – and we are pleased that the judge has recognised that the local authority was doing no more than fulfilling its duty.

“Our long-standing advice is that burgers should be cooked thoroughly to kill any bugs that may be present. If you’re cooking burgers at home, this should always be the case.

“However, if a business wants to serve burgers which are less than thoroughly cooked, then there must be appropriate controls in place to ensure consumers are protected. In this case, environmental health officers were not satisfied these controls were in place.

“We support local authorities in taking action in circumstances where businesses cannot demonstrate that they have adequate controls and where they do not meet legal food safety requirements.”

Portsmouth Council is seeking to recover its court costs.

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