Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Lemars catalkoy, in there yesterday. One of their open top freezers was faulty. They tried to keep the freezer cool by placing metal covers across the opening but all the produce had defrosted. No doubt the same food will be refrozen and then sold when the freezer is back up and running!

Not good! - although not exclusive to TRNC...

I have found the same issue in UK with freezers not down to the correct temperature (despite an impressive array of monitoring equipment & alarms ), and freezers so overloaded that the top layer was at room temperature!

I got such a bee in my bonnet about the local co-op store in my village that the manager used to run and hide when he saw me enter the shop. I eventually reported it to trading standards, but I never saw any improvement

I think that you just have to make sure that you cook everything thoroughly, and not rely on it having been stored safely.

Keith is right we have had the same problems in the UK just avoid chicken and seafood if in doubt.

Last year in Lemar, Alsancak when it was stifling hot, some of the items in the freezers were totally "floppy" and actually warm. There are lines around the freezers to indicate the height the frozen food should reach, but they had been filled right to the top and it was nearly impossible to slide the lid back and forth. I showed it to the Duty Manager but it was still the same 3 days later.

In the late '90s when we were having 8 hour electricity cuts and few shops had generators, I used to avoid frozen food, as I did not think it was possible to keep food adequately frozen. Now I think the health risk of frozen food "going off" is no worse than the risk that it contains GM crops, or indeed fresh vegetables etc. being contaminated by chemicals, pesticides, hormone fertilizers etc.

As a general rule (this goes for other enterprises as well) watch for helpful and friendly staff, managers or at least English speaking supervisors available in the event of problems, and positive attitude to customer satisfaction and the chances are the management is conscientious and will also be attentive to hygiene and safety. If the staff is sulky and unhelpful and management is never available the chances are the market will be badly run on a shoestring and hygiene will be skimped. Do not judge on one incident, however, as everyone has off days!

Lemars, Catalkoy, yes same shop, same freezers. A year ago I tripped on a broken floor tile in front of these same freezers. I pointed it out to an English member of staff a near accident caused by a tripping hazard. Weeks later back in the same shop tiles still the same. Reported it to another English staff member. The tiles are still broken with a plastic cone on top. The shop has no regard for customer heath and safety!

Have you ever heard chilled trucks /vans delivering to Supermarkets and shops with their fridge/freezer motor running ?. I have heard very few over here. In the UK the minimum acceptable temperatures were-18 for freezer goods and +5 for chilled goods and we had to show a printout of the temperatures before the shops would accept it.
But this is Cyprus not the UK.