THEY are the dirty dozen - the most fined food outlets in the state.

The NSW Food Authority's "name and shame" register reveals councils have penalised some eateries as many as 14 times in the past 18 months.

But the councils' work also leaves much to be desired.

These serial offenders emerged as other Food Authority data showed local authorities were raising more revenue by issuing a rapidly growing number of penalty infringement notices while handing out far fewer clean-up-or-else notices, for which there is no fine.

And some of the most fined outlets claim they are being unfairly victimised.

The most-fined food outlet in the state over the past two years is Gosford's South Sea Sandwiches.

In council reports, inspectors alleged finding dirt and food waste and "other visible matter" on cool-room fans, walls, shelves, cooking equipment and floors during two separate checks in May last year. Cockroaches were also observed.

Second on the list Balmain Trattoria and Pizza racked up 10 fines for, among other things, allegedly using meat toppings past their use-by date.

Leichhardt Council fined the Darling St diner over this in April last year and again in May.

Also on Darling St were two of the eateries in equal third. Balmain's Pinto Thai was allegedly found to have "flies, live cockroaches observed in fresh beef and prawns".

Rozelle's Larn Thong Thai Cuisine was penalised for alleged breaches including keeping chicken at 25C.

Hurstville's Sunny Harbour Seafood Restaurant allegedly kept chicken on the loading dock floor.

Other Food Authority data revealed councils issued 2049 penalty infringement notices in 2009-10 - up 19 per cent from the 1713 handed out in 2008-09. These commonly come with fines of up to $880.

Yet the number of improvement notices - which give outlets 24 hours to rectify the situation and do not involve a fine, just "cost recovery" - fell 13 per cent, from 1621 to 1399.

In its official report on council inspections, the Food Authority described this as a "concerning trend" and counter to national enforcement guidelines. A trend that should also be of concern, the number of prosecutions more than halved to 22 in 2009-10 from 48 in 2008-09. Yet complaints from the public jumped by 10 per cent to 4517.

The frequency of complaints about the accumulation of waste, odours and food-borne illnesses jumped from one in five to one in four complaints.

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Our dirty dozen of fined eateries 1 South Sea Sandwiches, Gosford

Co-owner Cindy Lu said: “They make the little things bigger than they are, they just fine us for anything.They just want money. I have spent more than $4000 [in fines] I cannot make that in three months.’’



2 Balmain Trattoria and Pizzeria, Balmain

Phone is disconnected and the shop is no longer at the address listed on the fines



3 Cafe Gioia, Leichhardt

Antoinella Colacicco, who runs the restaurant with her father and siblings, said: “We’ve been here for 17 years and we’ve never had any problems except for that one time the council came in and fined us. I’m so shattered that I’m on this shame list.’’



4 Larn Thong Thai Cuisine, Rozelle

Owners Tanun Dhephasadin Na Ayudhya and Nopparat Chaiyurawat were unavailable to comment



5 Pinto Thai Takeaway, Balmain

Owner Supaporn Jiravimolbij did not respond to voicemail messages



6 Subway, Fairfield East

Manager Sharon confirmed there was still the same owner and they knew they were on the list. I sent an email but never received a response



7 New Gee Kwong Restaurant, Gosford

Adam Kim, who owns the oldest Chinese restaurant on the Central Coast, said: “We’ve been here nearly 70 years. We’ve only had minor problems, not really big problems. We fixed all the problems already.”



8 Jaipur Bizarre Restaurant, Gladesville – Phone rang out



9 Chix Collaroy, Collaroy – Phone disconnected



10 Mr Focaccia, Marrickville – Manager did not return call



11 Macquarie Fields Takeaway, Macquarie Fields

The wife of owner Youssef Alnasser said: “Why don’t they pick on Coles and Woolworths rather than pick on us when we’re just trying to make a living. It was just a misunderstanding. And cockroaches happens to everyone, everyone has cockroaches.”



12 Golden Globe Seafood Restaurant, Burwood

Boss Kevin Xiao said: “I’m just taking over the restaurant from February last year for a couple of days and the council showed up at that time. Council came back to do the inspection and we had fixed everything. I have to keep the council happy.”



Originally published as Our dirty dozen of fined eateries