Poor hygiene exposed at crayfish restaurant

• Source: Global Times
• [08:50 July 27 2010]
• Comments

A woman cleans raw crayfish beside boxes of cooked crayfish on Shouning Road Monday. Photo: Liu Dong

By Liu Dong

Residents have called on food safety authorities to step up their inspections of shops selling crayfish on Shouning Road in Huangpu district, the most famous spot in the city for enjoying the crustaceans.

An anonymous resident living on Shouning Road called the food safety inspection hot line recently to voice concern over the cleanliness of some of the crayfish restaurants there, Labor Daily reported Monday.

When the Global Times went to Shouning Road at around 1 pm Monday, the dozens of crayfish restaurants along the street were mostly empty, although staff inside some were hard at work preparing crayfish for the peak late-evening period.

A woman surnamed Xu who owns one of the restaurants guaranteed to the Global Times that her crayfish were "absolutely clean and fresh."

However, in the narrow and dirty alley behind the restaurant, this reporter found two young girls putting hundreds of crayfish in a large washtub filled with water.

One girl picked any dead crayfish that she saw out of the washtub and threw them into a separate box. She told the Global Times that the dead crayfish would cause people to be sick if they were eaten.

The other girl then used a big wooden brush to stir the tub of crayfish, turning the water black after a few stirs. Between some loads, the water was not changed.

Boxes of crayfish that had already been cooked were stacked, uncovered, in the alley next to the washtub of raw crayfish, waiting to be reheated for the evening's diners.

The owner of a nearby clam restaurant, who declined to give his name, told the Global Times that washing the crayfish in such a way was unsanitary, and that each crayfish should be cleaned individually. "But at peak times, especially night, when hundreds of customers rush to the restaurants, staff don't have time to clean the crayfish even once before cooking them," he said.

Wang Hui, a doctor at the gastroenterology department of Ruijin Hospital, told the Global Times Monday that he regu-larly sees patients during the summer season in connection with the eating of poorly-prepared seafood.

"Eating unclean seafood like crayfish can certainly bring about serious diarrhea and hepatitis," Wang said. "It's very important to strictly separate cooked and uncooked food, as well as ensuring the food is cooked thoroughly before eating." He added that cooked food should be refrigerated if it is not going to be served immediately, and that refrigerated food should be reheated thoroughly before being served.

Liu Ruixing, a press officer from Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, told the Global Times Monday that several government departments are responsible for food safety issues on Shouning Road, and that she could not give a de-tailed response to questions until they reached a consensus.