Sitting next to me is Amina, one of 43 enthusiastic employees in the Brussels inspection unit of the Food Agency. An inspection is scheduled today at Westland Shopping Center in Anderlecht. She prepares her work and checks to see whether she can take some samples along the way at a nearby food store too.
Along with her colleagues, Amina inspects about 4,800 restaurants or eateries a year. These inspections follow a sophisticated inspection plan. The target is about one inspection every four years, in which our inspectors check that the business is respecting all the safety measures. Also, when the Food Agency receives a complaint, our inspectors take action. Amina is adamant: "Every complaint is investigated and leads to an inspection." First stop today: a restaurant in Westland Shopping.
Amina takes a very transparent approach. She follows the path of the food: from its receipt point to the place where it is cut or processed. With her high-sensitivity thermometer, she checks that all the food is being kept at the right temperature. This is very important: if food is kept for too long, too hot or too cold, pathogenic bacteria can multiply and make consumers ill.
The hygiene of the people who manipulate the food is also thoroughly inspected: where do people wash their hands, can they wash their hands without having to hold the tap, can they dry their hands hygienically, are they wearing any jewellery – which is definitely not allowed because jewellery can transmit infections? Are the work surfaces clean, are proper cleaning agents being used? This is all checked by our inspectors and carefully noted in the inspection report.
If any violations are found, the operator will be given a thorough explanation of the problem and the necessary time to put themselves in order. Often, this is an oversight, or sometimes even a lack of knowledge about exactly what is legally required of an operator. "The legislation is not always easy," Amina explains: "This is also why we take the time to thoroughly inform the operator and why the Food Agency has developed an e-training course: Good Hygiene Practices in the (institutional) kitchen."
Such an inspection can easily take several hours of time, depending on the size of the establishment and the extent of the violations. Fortunately, it is rare that hygiene rules are so badly flouted that there would be a danger to the people who come to eat there. "But it does happen. If there is a threat to public health, then we act immediately and close the establishment," Amina assures us. The owner is then given a deadline for full compliance. Failure to do so will result in that person losing their permit or recognition and no longer being allowed to open the establishment.
After this, Amina heads to a vegetable and dry food store in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. On top of the inspection work in eateries, each inspector is also given an assignment to collect food samples. This is done based on the inspection plan or in response to a complaint.
Of all the samples she takes, Amina also purchases a control sample – a kind of second sample. That sample is also thoroughly sealed, but remains in the store. Once the results of the checks are in and if they are good, the owner may break the seals and resell the products.
At what point is public health at risk? "If cockroaches or mice are roaming around, if toxic products are being kept among food items, if products are being kept at the wrong temperature for long periods of time, or products that are past their sell-by date are being served anyway. All this can make people very ill. But rest assured that these situations are rare, and if they do happen, we are here to act."
At foodweb.be, you can check whether the place where you want to go and eat has been inspected recently and what the result of this inspection was. If you want to file a complaint, you can do so through our hotline.