Food safety prosecution led to racial abuse Stuart Spear13/08/2014 - 12.00 print Print | email Email | More Sharing Services Share | comments Comments (0) | Story from Brightons Argus newspaper Story from Brightons Argus newspaper Brighton and Hove City Council has asked its local paper to remove racist comments relating to its prosecution of a local fish and chip owner amid fears that hygiene prosecutions of ethnic minorities are being used to fuel racist attacks. The case relates to the prosecution of Asif Javaid the owner of Cod Plus in Whitehawk road, Brighton for food safety offences after a customer reported finding a deep fried cockroach in the bottom of a bag of chips. The council successfully prosecuted Mr Javaid for three food safety offences after investigating EHOs found evidence of rats along with filthy equipment and inadequate food hygiene measures. Reporting on the case the Brighton Argus quoted Mr Javaid including his comments made to the court that he had suffered racial abuse following the publicity from the first hearing and had stones thrown through his windows. The Argus story prompted a thread of comments with racist undertones on the theme of poor food hygiene standards amongst ethnic minority groups. One comment was so outrageous that the council press office asked for it to be removed. ‘There were lots of racist comments coming up under the story suggesting that all these establishments run by ethnic minority groups were all filthy,’ said the Brighton press officer involved in the case. ‘I reported one of them that was particularly bad and they [The Argus] took it off but now that has led to accusations about the council interfering with freedom of speech.’ The thread also accuses EHOs of applying more lenient food safety standards to food outlets run by ethnic minority groups on the grounds that EHOs fear being labelled racist themselves. Brighton and Hove environmental health manager Nick Wilmot has expressed frustration at the difficulty the council faces in addressing racist comments and the accusation that the council is failing to prosecute on grounds of ethnicity. ‘In the last couple of prosecutions that we have done we are noticing these racially motivated comments being linked to foreign takeaways,’ said Mr Wilmot. ‘I did a piece on the local radio following the prosecution to try to raise the issue but they were only interested in the cockroach element.’ Commenting on the Brighton case the council’s deputy chair of environment, sustainability and transport committee, Lizzie Deane said: ‘While we are appalled to hear Mr Javaid’s claims of racial abuse following last year’s court hearing, we will continue to take the necessary steps to ensure that residents and visitors can eat safely in our city.’
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 16:57:14 +0000