By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong South family company says it has been unjustly blamed and shut down by the state’s health authorities over the death of an elderly patient.
Catering company iCook Foods, which had run for 35 years with an “unblemished” food-safety record, claims there is no evidence that its food was unsafe.
Meanwhile the business with 41 workers has been effectively destroyed, its devastated director Ian Cook says.
Up to its closure in February, it was the state’s largest provider of Meals On Wheels meals as well as providing foods to aged care homes and private hospitals. It turned over more than $6 million a year.
“How can you sum up destruction?” he says at his now-silent factory.
The health probe was launched after an 86-year-old woman with heart disease died at a private hospital on 4 February.
Seventeen days later, the factory was shut down by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Greater Dandenong Council.
The department has stated the woman had been diagnosed with listeriosis – which is associated with food contamination.
It was “strongly” linked via genomic sequencing to listeria bacterium detected in six products such as ham, silverside and sandwiches at iCook Foods.
However tests also revealed that the sample levels were comfortably within safe food-standards.
Australian food standards set the unsafe limit for listeria as more than 100 colony-forming units (CFUs) per gram.
The levels found on the iCook products, including supplied ham and silverside, were less than 10 CFUs per gram.
Samples taken from the kitchen’s surfaces and equipment failed to detect any listeria.
A DHHS spokesperson said “the test result … is only one of a number of samples which were taken and analysed”.
“Genomic sequencing has shown a strong link between food samples from iCook Foods and the elderly woman who died in a private hospital in the Eastern suburbs.”
iCook Foods general manager Benjamin Cook asks then for the department to show them the evidence.
“What relevance does (the genome) have if below 10 cfu/g is considered safe by Food Standards?”
The business had been regularly audited and inspected by health authorities without incident.
“We know we do a good service with a quality product and quality staff.”
In the 17 days between the patient’s death and the shutdown, thousands of ‘contaminated’ meals would have been distributed, iCook Foods argues.
Yet no other cases of listeriosis have been linked to the factory.
Ian Cook says it has since complied with all 37 corrective orders of the department, including a forensic cleandown of the factory.
The department is refusing to allow it to re-open, and is sending in forensic scientists to “build a case” against his business after the fact.
He says the department’s actions are unusually heavy-handed.
“You don’t close down Coles over a product recall.”
The department states it will not lift its shutdown orders until satisfied that “all necessary actions have been taken”.
“The Department of Health and Human Services will do everything in its power to safeguard the health of Victoria’s most vulnerable.
“The department is continuing to work with iCook Foods to ensure their premises comply with the order under the Food Act – and that all food safety standards are observed and maintained.”
