Our health is their concern

By MARK STORY

Staff washing dishes outside using a fire hose. Meat defrosting outside in the sun. Food stored in the toilet. Surfaces painted over - dirt and cockroaches included. A dead rat in a supermarket storage area.

It's all in a day's work for food safety inspectors, the people who safeguard the food we eat.

Food inspection work done at city council level is undertaken by environmental health officers (EHOs). They are highly qualified; in addition to having a relevant degree, typically a bachelor of health science, they also need relevant experience.

Seven of Manukau City's eight-person environmental and food safety team are environmental health officers (EHOs) - five of whom perform inspections.

Covering food outlets, hairdressers, massage parlours, skin piercers, tattooists, beauty therapists, camping grounds and mortuaries, EHOs inspect around four outlets daily. They also respond to complaints about noise, air and water pollution, and health hazards.

After 16 years in this business, Manukau City's EHO team leader, Ian Milnes, has seen everything. In fact, a complaint of bad smells from a property led to the discovery of decomposing human bodies. Arguably, says Milnes, it's the world's worst smell.

To give the public a better measure of an outlet's food quality, Manukau City recently revised its grading system. While an A is the highest ranking possible, an E denotes at least one critical fault and repeat problems.

A standard food inspection - outlets get at least two annually - encompasses a 32-question checklist. "Ensuring walls, ceilings, cooking stations and food storage areas are clean is as important as checking how food is prepared and handled," says Manukau EHO David Huang.

A Chinese immigrant with one degree in medicine and another in applied science, Huang's command of both Mandarin and Cantonese is a useful asset within culturally-diverse Manukau.

"Asian people have a habit of saying yes, yes, when they don't really understand what's required," he says.

"If I speak their language and understand their culture, I get a much better result. I had to close a bakery down one day last year, only to find the same outlet absolutely spotless the next. If push comes to shove, proprietors can be motivated to improve their outlets."

Food outlets can continue trading on an E grading, but if follow-up inspections find no improvement, they can be fined or closed down. Last year the city prosecuted five outlets, and closed 20.

But if Otara is any guide, the new grading system works. Since last August, the number of E-graded outlets has reduced from 17 to five. At neighbouring Auckland City, which has a similar grading system, closures are similarly low. So far this year, there have been around 15 closures from the 4000 food outlets it covers.

Manukau is growing so fast, says environmental health manager Kevin Jackson, that the city's food inspection and environmental monitoring team will expand.

Auckland City has two of its EHOs doing environmental monitoring. In addition to checking beach water quality and doing swimming pool checks, they keep an eye on contaminated sites.

For example, recent tests of the Tamaki estuary concluded there was no contamination following the America's Cup.

Current hot environmental issues in Manukau, says Milnes, include asbestos at Flat Bush, on-site sewerage disposal, especially at Kawakawa Bay, and the feasibility of converting old horticultural sites into residential developments.

So what attracts EHOs to this work? What excites his 16-strong EHO team, says David Vince, Auckland City's senior environmental officer, is the sheer variety.

One minute they could be doing food inspections, the next they might be responding to noise complaints.

Lacking the marks for medical school, Vince did a Massey degree in applied science after spending a day with an environmental health officer while still at high school in Christchurch.

Job prospects in the area are good, he says: local government environmental health strategies continually open up interesting jobs for graduates. Although environmental health is a specialist field, he says EHOs need to be all-rounders.

"Part of the job is to inform, so good communication skills are vital, even if it's reminding people that most food contamination comes from handling, and often from bacteria found in fingernails, hair or mouth and nasal droplets. The trick is to do it without being confrontational."

PAY STAKES

Environmental health officer, Manukau City: $42,557-$53,197.

Senior environmental scientist, Manukau City: $51,000-$75,000.