“Yes sir!”. Standing at attention, Gautier Bourges is chef at Les Helles, a non-medical senior residence in the Chabran district of Draguignan. Visibly uncomfortable, the man answers questions from Bruno Andréo, head technician of the food division, during an inspection visit by the Var Departmental Directorate for Population Protection (DDPP 83).
This is a simple routine check of the establishment’s kitchens – during their previous visit, in 2018, the investigators had only noted one anomaly, the fridge seals to be changed – but the tension is palpable .
After the Orpea mistreating nursing home scandal, establishments welcoming seniors are in the crosshairs of agents of the DDPP, a service which depends on the general directorate for competition, consumption and fraud repression (DGCCRF).
DRAGUIGNAN INVESTIGATOR OF THE DDPP 83 CONTROL VISIT COLLECTIVE CATERING OF THE EHPAD RESIDENCE HELLES SENIORSESCOFFIER FLORIAN / Nice Morning.
From the broom room to the fridge
Among the priority sectors, collective catering of a social nature for sensitive audiences: young children, elderly people, health establishments. “If you are not happy with your baker, you can go elsewhere. In collective catering, we are faced with a captive clientele, supervision must be reinforced”explains Bruno Andréo.
Vegetable room, cold rooms for meat and dairy products, stoves, hoods, etc. During a two-hour visit, the smallest detail was scrutinized: from the obligatory display on the walls of the date of cleaning of the floors to the broom room, without forgetting the “test dishes”, the meals of the 55 elderly people who live in independent dwellings in the residence, kept in 100 gram plastic bags, for seven days. “The regulations say 80 grams, we recommend 100 grams so that the DGCCRF laboratories can carry out two checks in the event of a search for food poisoning”advises Bruno Andréo.
55 evening meals are delivered every day to the apartments of the Les Helles senior medical residence in Draguignan.Florian Escoffier / Nice Matin.
100 checks per year
Obviously, the establishment, despite being in trouble, had not thought of this little detail. He will return to compliance following the investigator’s visit. Same update, on the obligation to inform residents of allergens. Here once more, a minor point of non-compliance for this establishment whose practices are otherwise considered virtuous.
In the Var, around a hundred inspections are carried out each year by the state administration, on 295 collective catering establishments of a social nature serving sensitive groups and 73 central kitchens. 25% result in regulatory recalls; 5% are subject to formal notices for more substantial breaches, “systematically re-checked and to date re-corrected”specifies Bruno Andréo.
