Ash Groceries and Meat (133 Rye Lane SE15) - Food contamination

[wonderwoman]

Dear all just wanted to warn you to be careful as this shop in Rye Lane has been found to be selling contaminated food, bleach in containers, mixing raw seafood with cooked and poor hygiene following inspection by Southwark food safety department. It had previously closed last year due to rat infestation which was resolved. I had bought some items from this shop and noticed a detergent smell. After washing and tasting the cooked seafood items they did not taste of anything at all certainly no fishy taste and literally seemed bleached! So I promptly disgarded the whole lot (I had no receipt and the cost was not worth returning to shop for). Luckily, touch wood, I have had no symptoms of food poisoning. However I later thought this needs to be reported. When I eventually found the contact details of the food safety team (trawling through the Southwark website) I came across the article by Cllr Richard Livingstone relating to the shops closure last year for rat infestation coincidentally. I have since queried whether there would be issues with allowing a shop like this to continue to operate, I suppose there are procedures related to food safety enforcement and hope that Southwark will continue to monitor. Initially they were reluctant to investigate on the basis of lack of evidence from myself and no other reports of a similar nature from anyone else (apart from the rat infestation of course). Just to warn fellow forumites and if anyone else has experienced anything they wish to report the number for Food Safety Team in Southwark is 020 7525 1497.

[alice]

isn't 133 rye lane the Bussey building venue?

[wonderwoman]

Don't know what the bussey building venue is, but checked on google street view and it's 133 rye lane, it's a big butchers on one side and other side sells seafood, shop is near the zebra crossing before the the railway bridge.

[ianr]

> When I eventually found the contact details of the food safety

> team (trawling through the Southwark website) I came across the

> article by Cllr Richard Livingstone relating to the shops closure

> last year for rat infestation coincidentally.

Presumably this is the article: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/article/1451/rat-infested_peckham_butcher_closed_down_by_councils_environmental_health_team

> Dear all just wanted to warn you to be careful as this shop in

> Rye Lane has been found to be selling contaminated food, bleach

> in containers, mixing raw seafood with cooked and poor hygiene

> following inspection by Southwark food safety department.

I read that btw as implying that the council EH team, not yourself, made these discoveries and judgments.

[the-e-dealer]

They are selling cross bred zebras ?

[sarz]

I wouldn't shop in any of those shops or butchers. How the whole lot hasn't been shut down is beyond me.

Rye lane is disgusting. It's a shame as it could be a lovely place to shop.

[the-e-dealer]

The 99p store is great!

[grace3]

Anyone who buys butcher meat in Rye Lane is asking for at best a dose of the ***** . Yes I remember Rye lane packed eight deep on the pavments on a Saturday------ C&A, Marks & Spencer, Woolworths, Pollards, now it's What?

[wonderwoman]

Hi the findings were from Southwark food safety team which I summarized. But the inspection was done ahead of due date following my call to them, I think they probably felt in hindsight they had to investigate as there was a history of really bad insect and rodent infestation. But as I said I have questioned how a business is allowed to remain open if they continue to act in such a negligent way. The feedback was,"Thank you for your complaint. I visited the above food business today to follow up the complaint and my findings are:

Traceability: No invoices present to demonstrate the suppliers of the cooked prawn.

Cross Contamination (Micro-biological): Cooked prawn was displayed next to raw fish (Red Snapper, Raw Prawn, etc.).

Cross Contamination (Chemical): ?Easy Seriously Thick Bleach? may have been used to clean container for storing cooked prawn.

Temperature Control: Smoked fish was left (displayed) at ambient temperature, instead of fridge or freezer.

Training: Food handlers had poor appreciation of cross contamination risk.

Poor Practices: Inadequate hand washing between handling raw fish and cooked prawn.

No soap and hand paper towels present for hygiene hand cleaning by food handlers.

Following my visit, I have asked the owner to send me invoices for the cooked prawns; cooked prawns have been moved to the freezer, away from raw fish and must be labelled ?Cook before eating? as the current batch must have been contaminated by juices from raw fish."

Yes I remember when Rye Lane was different, I'm all for diversity but health and safety comes first, shame as some of the shops have better standards, the whole lane could do with regenerating.

[missse22]

Nothing wrong with Harte's the Irish butchers (near Primark) they are lovely, very clean, you can smell the sanitizer as you walk in! Some if not all the other butchers along Rye lane make me heave!! The smell of rotting me, clearly never wipe down their surfaces etc!!

[Jessie]

Tesco in covent Garden was closed down last year for ages because of a mass rodent infestation. London and rodents, who knew. Singling out a single business not in se22 seems a bit snooty.

[wonderwoman]

Jessie I think you're missing the point, the original post was not meant to be a snooty attempt at singling out a business, it's to raise concerns so people are aware about this shop for health and safety reasons. Quite a lot of people I would presume shop in Rye Lane and not just stick to the confines of SE22 area, therefore I think it is relevant. But you to raise a point with Tescos and the rodent infestation, similarly Michelin restaurants have also been caught with infestation (some may say adds to the flavour :-)_and not meeting food safety standards so yes agreeable that any business can be affected. What's important is what is done about it to ensure public safety is protected. It's not that SE15 is any more risky than SE22 or anywhere else (some may disagree), it just happens that I was unfortunate enough to come across this shop which happens to be in Rye Lane. If it happened anywhere else I'd still report it to the food safety department.