The former owners of a Sylvania bakery at the centre of a salmonella outbreak in January 2016 have been fined a total of $122,000 and ordered to pay $7199 in professional costs.
Box Village Bakery on Corea St, Sylvania served up dodgy chicken rolls and salads in January last year.
The owners of the bakery, Thi Thu Ngo and Hung Son Le, each pleaded guilty to five breaches of selling unsafe food and five breaches of failing to meet food safety standards under the Food Act 2003.
They have now been fined $61,000 each.
There were 203 documented cases of people who were presented to hospitals and other health care providers with symptoms of gastroenteritis including vomiting, diarrhea and fever after eating the bakery food.
One woman was forced to undergo an emergency caesarean and deliver her baby five weeks early when she became violently ill.
Ashley Buchanan gave birth to her daughter Ava at Wollongong Hospital, and was admitted to intensive care after her caesarean surgery.
"It was all quite frightening, because my blood pressure went right down; they had to rush me to ICU straight after the delivery," Ms Buchanan said at the time.
"My husband was actually in hospital at the time, but because he was sick he wasn't allowed to come into the theatre with me to see the birth, so it was all very stressful and frightening."
A number of children also fell ill: Engadine building contractor Damian Sullivan said his 11-year-old son Cooper was hospitalised after eating a chicken salad roll.
"Cooper started feeling sick on Sunday night and when we took him to the GP on Monday he said, 'take him straight to hospital'," Mr Sullivan said at the time.
The bakery has since changed hands. When contacted by the Leader, the bakery confirmed new owners had taken over the business about five months ago and had changed its name to Sun Valley Bakehouse.
The NSW Food Authority commenced investigation into the bakery after it was notified of an outbreak.
During its investigation the NSW Food Authority issued a prohibition order requiring the business to cease operations.
The business was only permitted to reopen in March 2016 after it completed extensive work to ensure the bakery had been thoroughly cleaned and fully compliant with food safety laws.
The NSW Food Authority also conducted skills and knowledge testing with staff and management of the business to improve their food safety knowledge and conducted a number of inspections of the premises.
The business put up an apology on its window following the outbreak.
NSW Food Authority chief executive Lisa Szabo said the court result served as a reminder to all food businesses and individuals as to why food safety systems were crucial.
“Consumers have the right to have confidence and certainty that the food they purchase and consume is safe to eat and won’t harm the health of them or their family,” Dr Szabo said.
However on Facebook, people who had been affected by the Salmonella outbreak were saying the fine was not enough.
"I lost a 15k job cause I was bed ridden for eight days. As far as I'm concerned the business should be closed down," said plumber Matthew Cherry.
"I'm sure if I did something that resulted in 203 people showing up to hospital I would be no longer trading".
Others said they had never been so sick, and the money from the fines should be distributed to people who had fallen ill.
