With no further news on the raw-egg-in-mayonnaise salmonella outbreak at a Canberra cafe and bakery that has sickened 13, attention in the capital today turned to the owner of a Chinese restaurant who was convicted and fined $8000 after breaching the territory's food safety laws.

Health authorities shut down the Grand Court restaurant in October, 2010 for 11 days after finding grimy work surfaces and ''biological matter'' all over the cool-room floor.

But the ACT Magistrates Court heard owner Michelle Foo, 28, had worked hard to clean up the restaurant and had been allowed to reopen after it passed a health inspection.

Foo had pleaded guilty to four charges of failing to comply with food hygiene requirements and unsafe food handling.

Her defence lawyer told the court that the evidence against his client was indisputable but said Foo was very remorseful for the offences and had since turned things around at the eatery.

The court heard Foo had previously worked for Woolworths and had no experience of running a restaurant when she bought the Grand Court in August 2010.

The restaurant was old and inadequate and staff did not follow appropriate hygiene practices.

A health officer inspected the premises after a customer complained about a cockroach in a takeaway bag.

According to documents tendered in court, the inspection uncovered dirty work surfaces, greasy walls, dirty equipment and a lack of proper food-storage containers.

Authorities shut the restaurant down amid fears it was ''critically unhygienic''.

The Grand Court had since been cleaned up and had passed every health inspection for the past year.

Magistrate Maria Doogan said it was difficult to accept Foo's excuse that she was an inexperienced restaurateur, saying anyone who went into the restaurant business should know about hygiene standards.

A company that provided listeria-contaminated chicken to the airline Virgin Blue, sickening 29 passengers and causing two premature births in 2009, has received the largest fine of its type in New South Wales.

Directors of GMI Food Wholesalers pleaded guilty to 26 charges relating to the production, handling and sale of unsafe food.

They were fined $236,000 plus legal costs, in the Downing Centre Local Court. Details of the case will be published on the NSW Food Authority's website today.

A Melbourne restaurant has been fined $20,000 after an inspector found its kitchen infested with cockroaches, rodent droppings and accumulated grease, dirt and food waste.

A director of Ten Ren's Tea Station agreed to temporarily shut its upstairs kitchen on March 7 this year - after a complaint from a customer - when authorities feared for public health.

Senior magistrate Dan Muling yesterday said there was no justification or excuse for the conditions and told its directors they ''wouldn't have your own kitchen looking like this''.

Prosecutor Sebastian Reid said the initial inspection revealed the kitchen to have ''heavy infestation'' of cockroaches, some rodent activity and no method to sanitise food contact surfaces and utensils.

Mr Reid listed more than 30 examples of Food Act breaches to walls, the floor, bowls, fridges and freezers, shelves, door seals, handles, exhaust hood and microwave oven.
These included a high number of live and nesting cockroaches, rodent droppings and heavy accumulation of grease, dirt, food waste and rubbish on the floor, under fridges, cooking equipment and kitchen benches.

Defence barrister Tim Bourke said the directors started the restaurant in 2008 and had employed unreliable students and migrants.

The London Evening Standard reports the owner of a Chinese restaurant infested with mice and cockroaches - where even a chef suffered salmonella - has walked free from court.

Ellen Chew, of Inn Noodle in Oxford Street, has been banned indefinitely from running a catering business after being in charge of a "food hygiene disaster waiting to happen."

Southwark crown court heard how two customers, Rebecca Katisoris and Stanley Li, needed hospital treatment after being struck down with salmonella. The noodle chef was also sick.

Hygiene inspectors found the kitchens were a haven for vermin and encrusted with grease and dirt. They found evidence of cockroaches behind a fridge, mice droppings in a bowl of ginger and chilli mix, and high levels of E. coli and other bacteria in a bowl of rice.

Containers of raw meat were piled next to a sink for washing plates. Three dishcloths used to clean plates and wipe surfaces were found to have the same strain of salmonella on them.

Chew, 42, of Rotherhithe, admitted two counts of placing food deemed unsafe on the market and four counts of failing to comply with European food safety legislation. Judge Deborah Taylor imposed the ban on running a food business and gave her a six-month suspended jail sentence. She was fined £7,515 and ordered to pay £25,000 costs. She must also pay £500 compensation to the two customers who fell ill.