INTRODUCTION
An
eating establishment is a company which prepares and serves food and
drink to customers in
return for money, either paid before the meal, after the meal, or with a
running tab. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many
restaurants also offer take-out and
food delivery services.
Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety
of the main chef's cuisines and
service models.
CONCEPTS OF EATING ESTABLISHMENTS
Eating establishments range from unpretentious lunching or
dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in
simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food
and wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear
casual clothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions,
customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal,
or formal wear.
Typically,
customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is
ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving. In finer restaurants
there will be a host or hostess or even a maître d'hôtel to welcome customers and to seat
them. Other staff waiting on customers include busboys and sommeliers.
Eating establishments often specialize in certain types of
food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme.
For example, there are seafood
restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants.
Generally speaking, restaurants selling food characteristic of the local
culture are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of
foreign cultural origin are called ethnic restaurants.
LEGAL REQIREMENTS FOR EATING
ESTABLISHMENTS
In addition to the provisions
contained in the Health Act 1956, the Food Act 1981, the Food Hygiene
Regulations 1974, and the Health (Registration of Premises) Regulations 1966
the following provisions shall apply with regard to the sale of food in the
District:
Staff qualifications
No
person shall be issued with a Certificate of Registration for any food premises
or be an occupier of food premises (except a vehicle used for the carriage or
delivery of food for sale) except in accordance with the provisions of the Food
Hygiene Regulations 1974, and the Health (Registration of Premises) Regulations
1966 and the following requirements:
a. The person has passed an approved
Basic Food Hygiene Course, and will normally be present at the food premises
when food manufacture, preparation, handling, sale or ancillary processes
incidental thereto are being undertaken; or
b. There will be working full-time on
the premises a manager, or staff member with sufficient authority and with
specific responsibility for staff training and supervision who has passed an
approved Basic Food Hygiene Course and is actually involved in food manufacture,
preparation and handling at that specific premises.
In addition to the requirements of above, any food premises
employing food handlers shall ensure that at least 75% of all food handlers
(including part-time workers) employed on those premises at any one time shall
have passed an approved Basic Food Hygiene Course either before they commenced
work on those premises or within 3 months of commencing work on those premises.
Exemption
from qualifications
An
environmental health officer may grant an exemption from the qualification
requirements of this bylaw if satisfied that it would be unreasonable or
impractical to insist on compliance, having regard to the type of premises, or
types of food being packed, stored, handled or sold.
The
holder of the Certificate of Registration or the occupier of the food premises
shall be responsible for ensuring that adequate records relating to the
training of staff in matters relating to food hygiene and food safety and
copies of all certificates or other evidence of persons employed on those
premises having passed an approved Basic Food Hygiene Course or other
qualifications are kept on the premises where the food handlers concerned are
employed.
Availability
of training records
The
holder of the Certificate of Registration or the occupier of the food premises
shall on request make available for perusal by any environmental health officer
the records required to be kept pursuant to clause 15.3.4.
Prior
to the annual registration of food premises and in the case of food premises
not required to be registered then at appropriate annual intervals, the
environmental health officer will, following an inspection, provide a grading
for the premises.
Grading
Certificate
A
Certificate of Grading (the "Grading Certificate") resulting from the
inspections noting the appropriate classification of the grading as determined
by the environmental health officer will be delivered to the applicant together
with the annual certificate of registration where the applicant qualified for
the annual certificate of registration or at appropriate intervals where the premises
is not subject to annual registration.
The
grading shall remain in place for a period of 2 months from the date of issue
before any application for regrading will be considered.
Grading
Certificate to be displayed
The
current Grading Certificate shall be conspicuously displayed at the principal
entrance in full view and unobscured. An environmental health officer may
approve an alternative display position in situations where the officer deems
it necessary.
It
is an offence under this bylaw to display a Grading Certificate that is not
current.
No
person shall let for hire any utensil, dish, glass, crockery, cutlery,
appliance, similar item or other equipment for use in the service or
consumption of food unless such utensil, dish, glass, crockery, cutlery,
appliance, similar item or other equipment has been effectively cleansed and
rendered hygienic by one of the methods detailed in Regulation 35 of the Food
Hygiene Regulations 1974.
No
cardboard container which has been previously used for containing unwashed
utensils, dishes, crockery, cutlery, glasses, appliances or similar items shall
again be used for containing utensils, dishes, glasses, appliances or similar
items intended for use in the service and consumption of food after they have
been washed and rendered hygienic in accordance with the provisions .
BYLAWS CONTROLING THE EATING PREMISES
This bylaw allows environmental health officers of
the council to take action against dirty and unhygienic food premises.
Where food premises are operated in such a way that
food may be contaminated or tainted it provides for an environmental health
officer to close the premises for cleaning or repair. It further allows the council
to seek an injunction against a food premises operator who continues to operate
after the revocation of a certificate of registration by the council.
This bylaw also requires that by defined dates
certain food premises owners and members of the staff of the food premises must
have appropriate training and qualification in food hygiene. The purpose of
this is to improve the standard of food protection in food outlets in the city,
and reduce the incidence of food-related diseases. It also provides for the
grading of food premises and makes it mandatory for a Grading Certificate to be
displayed where it can be seen by members of the public thereby creating
motivation to improve standards and obtain a higher grading.
Standards of construction and maintenance of food
premises and conduct of workers engaged in food premises are generally
prescribed by the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974, but these are silent in
respect of food handler training.
Provision is also made for the approval of premises
which hire out crockery, glasses, etc to the public to ensure that such
equipment is thoroughly cleaned between such usage. Thse by laws covers the
following:
Annual
registration
This
refers to the registration of food premises required by the Food Hygiene
Regulations 1974 and the Health (Registration of Premises) Regulations 1966.
Approved
basic food hygiene course
This
refers to a training programme which has been accredited by the New Zealand
Qualifications Authority for the purposes of food preparation and handling, or
an alternative course in food hygiene approved in writing by an environmental
health officer.
Certificate
of registration
A
certificate of registration as required by the Health (Registration of
Premises) Regulations 1966.
REFERENCES
Rebecca
L. Spang, The Invention of the
Restaurant: Paris and Modern
Ellis,
Steven J. R. (2004): "The Distribution of Bars at Pompeii:
Archaeological, Spatial and Viewshed
Analyses", Journal of Roman
Archaeology, Vol. 17, pp. 371–384 (374f.).
2007. Cites an article by H.G. Parsa
in Cornell Hotel & Restaurant
Administration Quarterly, published August, 2005
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