An outbreak of cases of Salmonella infections in Kyiv has revealed a rash of sanitary violations in the city’s restaurants.
Police have started criminal proceedings against Eurasia, a popular chain of sushi restaurants in Kyiv, after 39 people came down with Salmonella poisoning after eating in two of its restaurants. An investigation found that one of the cooks had spread the bacteria.
Further inspections by Ukraine’s food safety authorities uncovered numerous sanitary violations in at least 79 other restaurants in Kyiv.
However, legislation that was in effect until June 30 prevented the authorities from immediately issuing fines or shutting down the offenders – the law had stipulated that such measures could be taken only after a scheduled inspection, and not an unscheduled one.
The only restaurants to be temporarily closed as of July 5 were the two Eurasia sushi bars where customers were infected by the bacteria – on 2A Dmytrivska St. and 20 Stepan Bandera St.
The first cases of salmonellosis infection were reported on June 27, when 34 people sought treatment for the symptoms of Salmonella poisoning – diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, and vomiting. All had eaten in the two Eurasia restaurants, and five more people reported infection within the following week.
Most of the infected customers were hospitalized. The State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection launched an inspection of the entire Eurasia chain.
Eurasia hasn’t yet replied to a request for comment from the Kyiv Post. On its official website, the company said that after the inspections the restaurant chain received recommendations that “are not connected with the quality of food or sanitary violations.”
But that contradicts the statements issued by the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
It said that Eurasia’s violations included incorrect temperature in fridges where food is kept, the absence of food labeling, and “insufficient quantities of uniforms.” Some kitchen employees and waiting staff lacked the medical checkup certificates needed to work in the food industry.
Legislative holdback
The food safety service said on July 5 that, according to the results of its inspections, the Eurasia customers had been infected by one of the cooks, who had salmonellosis.
Eurasia is a large chain of budget restaurants that includes 21 sushi bars in Kyiv.
While the food safety service found many violations in Eurasia restaurants, they couldn’t immediately take measures due to the legislation that had been in effect until the end of June.
However, the new law on state checks of food and food safety signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on June 30 now allows the food safety service to inspect restaurants without giving 10-days’ notice, and allows it to impose sanctions right away.
The food safety service said it would conduct full inspections of Eurasia restaurants in early July.
“If we discover a violation that directly threatens customers, we will impose a fine,” said Deputy Chief of the Food Safety Service Oleksandr Ovcharenko. “If it’s a violation with no direct threat, we will give a written warning.”
Depending on the violation, fines could range from Hr 16,000 ($615) to Hr 160,000 ($6,154).
Apart from that, the police have already initiated a criminal investigation. If found guilty of sanitary violations, and depending on their severity, Eurasia’s management might face a Hr 1,700 fine ($65), arrest of up to six months, or a jail sentence of up to three years.
Sanitary violations
The incident involving Eurasia prompted a series of other checkups by the food safety service. According to Ovcharenko, they inspected 83 restaurants and cafes from Kyiv’s biggest restaurant chains that have large customer flows. He said 79 of them were found to have violated sanitary norms.
Ovcharenko said that any violation was dangerous, puts customers at risk, and will sooner or later cause problems.
He said the high number of violations was the consequence of the long policy of only conducting inspections with advanced notice.
For many years advance notice was given of all sanitary inspections, so restaurants knew the dates of examinations and could either get ready and clean up, or bribe inspectors, Ovcharenko says.
On top of that, for two years, in 2014 and 2015, there was a moratorium on inspections of businesses except by the State Fiscal Inspection. The food safety authorities could only inspect restaurants if they had the permission from the Cabinet of Ministers.
“They (restaurants) got too relaxed because of the moratorium, and now we’re trying to make them get used to inspections again,” Ovcharenko said.
Despite the lack of immediate sanctions, the inspections following the salmonellosis outbreak had a positive influence on some of the businesses. Twenty-eight restaurants voluntarily closed down to eliminate the violations and meet sanitary norms.
The Food Safety Service also received requests from 24 restaurants that were not on the list but wanted to be inspected.
