By Eric King-
An East London chicken shop has been shut down following the discovery of swarms of cockroaches in the kitchens by health inspectors.
Chick Point, in Hoe Street, was riddled with insects swimming in a filthy kitchen coated with grease when officers from Waltham Forest Council inspected their premises.
Astonished officers reported ugly sights of insects and cockroaches parading the kitchen of a restaurant that serves thousands of customers everyday. Regular customers were previously ignorant of the level of filth surrounding the environment they choose to spend their money to eat.
Thames Magistrates Court against imposed an order against the unhygienic takeaway, requiring urgent improvements of hygiene before they can reopen the business. Cllr Clyde Loakes, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “No-one would let their kitchen at home get to this state and yet the owners of this takeaway were happy to charge people for the privilege.
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In a separate case this week, health inspectors were also forced to close FES Restaurant in Old Church Road, Chingford, after cockroaches were discovered in the kitchen. The careless and seeming unhygienic owners or workers have ruined the reputation of their businesses through this verdict. When customers attend a restaurant to spend their good earned cash, they take it forgranted that those hosting them have their well being at heart and have undertaken all health and safety measures. Cases like these are a reminder that the public cannot always be trusting enough that all restaurants do take the required health and safety measures.
Individuals who are personally unhygienic and negligent in their lifestyle often carry this serious weakness to their profession. All civil members of society should instinctively be able to trust the safety standards taking by any licensed restaurant, the release of funds to purchase food is an exchange of trust for cash in the quality and condition of the service being provided. Cockroaches or insects should never be found in the kitchen of a normal and sane human being, let alone a restaurant. The thought is so sickening that business offenders caught entertaining filth in an environment to later be served to unsuspecting customers should be fined heavily for it. The opportunity given by health inspectors for restaurants to improve their hygiene levels is kind and lenient- restaurants who recklessly put the health of customers at risks should be put out of business.
Weeks or months down the line, the ignominious food restaurants will resurface claiming to have rectified the despicable filth with which their business name should be indefinitely thrown down the gutter . Otherwise it becomes like trying to wash a filthy towel soaked in muddy waters when a new one can be bought to respect the user. Chick point in Hoe Street is not a restaurant this writer will ever attend or recommend to anybody since the consequences of chancing the absorption of potentially contaminated food even on the off chance is not one worth taking.
Council enforcement officers have closed seven unhygienic restaurants, takeaways and food stores across the borough during 2017.
Last June, Hamburger Grill on Walthamstow High Street was visited by a Waltham Forest Council food safety inspector from after a customer reported seeing a rat in the toilets.
The officer reported that the kitchen area was “thick with grease and extremely dirty”, the council said.
Mouse droppings were found on a shelf that stored food and plates , and packets of nuts and dried fruit had been attacked by mice. A large rat hole was also found in a cupboard, and a mouse hole in the serving area.
A large amount of mouldy food was found in the premises including black puddings, fruit and jars of pickled beetroot and gherkins. Making terrible matters much worse was that several packs of potatoes were found which were green in colour and sprouting. Finally, a container of bacon found was going green and all of the containers on the premises were greasy and encrusted with food. The revelations are a wake up call for customers to be very careful and inquiring about where thry choose to eat.