Zealous inspector took cleaning too far

Zealous inspector took cleaning too far A Wellington restaurant received an apology after a council worker deliberately sprayed its food with chemicals during an ill-tempered inspection. "We were quite upset. " Mr Prasad complained to the council, and received a written apology. It had since won awards and drawn excellent reviews for its Indian vegetarian food. " He confirmed there was a "misunderstanding" and the food was sprayed by the inspector. Council spokesman Grahame Armstrong confirmed last night that there was an incident involving an inspector at the time and that a letter of apology was sent. The restaurant now had an "excellent" working relationship with the council. The restaurant was closed for only a few hours while issues raised by the inspection were fixed, Mr Prasad said. It was briefly closed after the inspector found a lack of hot water, a dishwasher not working, and the restaurant was trading without a licence. Last week the council issued a list of 30 eateries that had been temporarily closed by environmental health officers for serious hygiene regulation breaches or public health concerns during the past five years. Jagdish Prasad, the Wellington manager of Hare Krishna organisation Iskon, which operates the restaurant, said the female inspector got into an argument with a staff member. The food got a solid spray, and had to be thrown out, he said. During the altercation, the inspector grabbed a bottle of cleaner and sprayed food that was sitting in a servery. It was offensive to Hare Krishna beliefs to waste food. It was an insult, though we think the lady probably didn't recognise that. Zealous inspector took cleaning too far Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 06/03/2012