Rats on the loose in Jakarta restaurants

Seeing Ratatouille, the cute animated rat running around the kitchen in the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name might generate laughter.

But a real rat scampering about on the floor is absolutely the last thing Jakartans want to see while enjoying a tidbit of real ratatouille or other food in a decent restaurant.

Nia Dewi, 28, said she and her friend could only scream when the unexpected rodent passed beneath their table in what she described as a high-end restaurant in a mall in a tony area of South Jakarta. “It was about a size of an adult man’s hand and it nimbly ran to the kitchen. We reported it directly to a waitress only to receive a simple apology,” Nia said.

Nia said she could not enjoy her cheesecake after that, promising to herself that she would never return to the restaurant that she deemed as “overpriced for keeping rats under their roof”.

Swasti Dini, 28, said that once she saw the horrifying sight of dozens of cockroaches scurrying happily below her table’s glass façade when she had lunch in a shopping center, also in South Jakarta.

Swasti said she could not imagine eating with roaches running around only inches away from her plate, so she decided to just sit there silently waiting for her friends to finish their meals. “I didn’t know who to report it to because we were in a self-service food court with no waitresses. I could only vow not to eat there again,” Swasti said.

But that is probably the best Jakartans can do, as the city has no food and health inspection body to routinely check restaurants’ sanitation conditions and to impose sanctions on those places inhabited by unwanted rodents and roaches.

The Tourism Agency, which manages restaurants and cafes across the capital along with the Health Agency and the Hotel and Restaurant Association, say that they conduct such inspections only prior to issuing business permits, which are renewed every three years, to ensure restaurants maintain their standards.

“We team up with the health agency and the association to inspect restaurants’ physical conditions, from kitchen to eating utilities, before issuing a permit. But keeping rats and cockroaches out of the restaurants are the owners’ responsibility. Customers nowadays are critical and smart enough to complain through social media sites and newspapers,” Tourism Agency head Arie Budhiman said on Thursday.

“We are sure that restaurant owners don’t want their reputations dragged down by such complaints and will take care of these things to keep their businesses alive,” Arie said.

Health Agency head Emmawati said the agency evaluated sanitation conditions in restaurants and cafes every six months. If rats or other pests were found, the agency encouraged the owners “to call a pest exterminator”.

Arie said that was the best the agencies could do, adding that it was impossible to impose sanctions in such situations. “We are not a coercive body and we deem such things as private matters. People don’t call us or the police if rats infiltrate their homes,” Arie said.

The agency only revokes a restaurant’s business permit if there is a severe case of food poisoning resulting in a large number of victims or, in extreme cases, death.

Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said that keeping customers safe was the task not only of business owners but also the city’s agencies.

“Who knows where these pests have been? They could cause food poisoning and harm customers by spreading disease. We really need an inspection body to monitor restaurants,” Tulus said.

In cities in other countries, Public Health Inspectors are responsible for carrying out public health protection measures, including administering and enforcing relevant legislation.

The inspectors routinely check restaurants across the cities and record any instances of health violations, including rodent droppings or infestation, which will determine whether or not such outlets will have their business permits renewed.

In New York, for instance, where the Health Department conducts spot inspections of restaurants at least once a year, dozens of restaurants were shut down in 2007 for having an intolerably high number of violations