Hi there,
As you may know we have a commercial kitchen with wood fired dehydrator, farm shop and outside a mobile 'mostarna'. At times we have produced cookies, jams, preserves, bread, cider, dried apples, etc. +Cooking for events.
You are very right: The bureacrats don't know anything.
Unfortunately the problem did not really originate in Brussels, it originated from the prevailing Czech mentality; the 'Post Socialist Stress Disorder"! The thing is that CZ was told they could file special exemptions for traditional local farm made products, but the delegates at MZe said that this wasn't necessary, as CZ did not have such a tradition...apparently their memory of history didn't go further than to 1945! This means we have to live up to same standards as factories, dairies etc.
In our case it meant that the director of the potravinarske inspekce in Olomouc was invited in the building phaze for consulting, but afterwards his advice wasn't good enough for the hygine office, which meant we had to invent a new place for washing produce, installing water, drain etc, after all the tiling already were done! [Hrmpf].
I'm certified to manage a commercial kitchen in Oregon, so I tried to simply design and build the whole thing without a 'projektant'. Not possible! We needed to get round stamp projects from; Electrician, kitchen specialists, lighting specialists (had to have lux tests made!), water inspection company and we had to make emergency plans, and plans of operation for each type of product we make. (-BTW: Anytime a product is made, one sample has to be saved in case of later problems from consumers)... We did it all (poor Radka)....and invested min. 250.000 in the kitchen alone...
Now get this: There's a 4 meter narrow hallway leading from the farm shop to the kitchen. The kitchen has a door. The moron's from Litovel building office did not approve of the hallway having commercial earth plaster on it, as sand can be rubbed off. We had to seal it. I swear there's no documents stating anything like that; It's simply their personal mis-judgements!
Well, we sorted it all out, we installed extra lights so that workers are allowed to work there...but!!!
Turns out that the only ones allowed to use the kitchen is Radka and me! Why?
1) To get into our shower you have to step into the bathtub. This is not allowed for a staff shower (And yes; there have to be a separate shower for staff!)
2) There's not a door between the toilet and the shower; it's all in the same bathroom.
3) Last but none-the-least; there have to be 2 separate cabinets: One for the staff member to hang their clothes, another for the sterile (In some cases they demand sealed by professional cleaners) work clothes for the staff....
SCOTTY: BEAM ME UP!!! NOW!!!
Photos of kitchen here:
Photo of illegal bath here... Oops; you have to turn your monitor...
