Hot Kebabs

I don’t know what I was expecting when I rounding the corner and started down the little lane behind the shops. The complaint said that there had been a load of meat left outside at the rear of the shop for the afternoon. I don’t know why it was the last thing that I was expecting. I thought that it would just be a complaint by a neighbouring shop owner; just an unfounded dispute where one side thinks it would be more inconvenient for the other part for the health inspectors to come around and inspect. I didn’t expect that I would go down that alley and find two and a half pallets of meat sat out the back of the shop.

Of course, that’s exactly what I found. The pallets were just sitting there. I walked up to them and had a look around. It was meat alright, some defrosted, outer temperatures well inside the ‘danger zone’. I went inside the shop and talked to the manager. Delivered by mistake, meant to go to the other store, no time to move it, thought it was still frozen… The usual excuses were given, none of which changed the fact that there was nearly three tonnes of meat sat outside in the sun. In the end the decision was down to a combination of temperature and time. The time was about 6 hours. The temperature was from frozen to the low teens. I called my boss. It was a lot of meat and the first time that I’d dealt with anything like this. I was glad that my boss agreed. The meat that had defrosted must be put in the refrigerator straight away while the meat that was frozen may be put into the freezer. This was based on the supposition that the meat would have been within the ‘danger zone’ for less than two hours. I left the shop as it was being loaded onto a truck to be taken to another store.

The next day I had to follow up. It was not what I expected. The meat had all been put into the freezer. That along with another couple of inconsistencies within the stories made the next decision tougher. I went back to talk to my manager. Due to the uncertainty and non-compliance with the previous directions, we were to seize all the meat. All two and a half tonnes! The owner wasn’t happy but we had no choice. We taped up the freezer where the meat was all stored to await the 72 hour appeal period. It was a stressful week of waiting. Each day I thought that I would be getting a phone call from the local courthouse saying that I was expected in court to present my case to the magistrate. I was surprised that the call never came. Even so, I spent that week writing up detailed statements and notes regarding the seizure. All reasons and actions had to be justified with legal justification. I couldn’t wait for noon on Friday the 13th. That’s when we would be able to collect the meat and dispose of it. The appeal period would be over and only further investigation, clarification and education left to do.

As the clock hit 11:30 am I started to relax. It was the time for action. We parked the ute behind the shop and started to load. It took us nearly three hours to load all the meat onto the ute and then stack it in the bin. We filled the bin up and still had a ute load left. It was almost two and a half tonne that we disposed of in the end. It was all taken down to the local tip and buried in the rubbish.

It certainly was a waste but really there was no excuse and it had to be done. The owner and his staff should have known better. From what I hear this is one of the biggest seizures that has happened in Alice Springs. It isn't over yet. There are now further interviews to conduct, reports to write and education to be conducted to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.