A Richmond Hill butcher shop has been summoned to court following an investigation that resulted in them being charged with 12 health infractions. According to YorkSafe, York Region’s food inspection agency, Many Meats Trading, near Leslie Street and Highway 7, was first inspected in July 2011 and was served with a court order at the end of last year.
“We don’t allow live animals to be present within an establishment,” said Steven Rebellato, manager of community and health services. “You can put two and two together, so in this case, we charged them in terms of what we had seen at the time,” he added.
YorkSafe’s website revealed that, during their initial inspection, investigators found the butcher shop had violated the safety code, including permitting the use of a food-handling room for sleeping, failing to provide a handwashing basin in a food preparation area, selling hazardous foods stored at unsafe temperatures, housing meat from an uninspected animal, failing to ensure the room is kept free from live animals and failing to protect food from contamination. Rebellato said the Ministry of Natural Resources approached his team with a complaint, and the two groups shut down Many Meats. Two days later, they were reopened.
“When we went back two days later, they had done everything we had asked them to, in order to mitigate that health hazard, and as a result, they were reopened,” he said.
But following any investigation, YorkSafe has six months to serve an establishment with a summons to court, which they did late last year.
If found guilty, Many Meats faces a fine of up to $25,000, but no court date has been set, Rebellato added.
A manager at Many Meats said he could not comment due to a language barrier. The butchery is currently open for business.
