On 24th September 2009 Watchdog reported that hundreds of people had become seriously ill while staying at the Holiday Village in Sarigerme, South West Turkey. The Holiday Village is the largest resort offered by First Choice.
The hotel is all-inclusive and most guests never leave during their stay, which is why so many of them believe something in the resort made them ill.
Families have complained about getting ill at the resort every summer since it opened in 2005. There are now 1600 people who are suing or are planning to sue First Choice because illness ruined their holiday, and hundreds more may join them.
The majority of people who have stayed at the resort over the last five summers have not become sick. However, hundreds have. There are three illnesses which have been identified so far: salmonella, often caused by food not being cooked or stored at the right temperature; campylobacter, often caused by cross contamination of food; and crpytospiridium, often caused by faeces in water.
Following our last report First Choice agreed to allow hygiene expert Dr Lisa Ackerley and our cameras access to any part of the resort. So, she went to the Holiday Village for two days with three colleagues to see it for herself.
On the surface the hotel was spotless, and all the right hygiene processes in the kitchens appeared to be in place.
However, she and her team found that there were was no hot water in some of the wash hand basins in kitchens and snack bars for food handlers to wash their hands. The hotel does have hand sanitising procedures in place, but Lisa says that's not enough.
There are guidelines laid down by the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) which hotels abroad attempt to meet when they are part of a holiday package offered by big companies like First Choice. On hot water these guidelines state: 'Hand wash basins must be provided and supplied with hot and cold water, soap, and disposable paper towels or hot air hand-drying facilities at all times.' They also say: 'The temperature of hot water must exceed 50 degrees Celsius at all taps and faucets.'
The resort had been already warned about this issue in a previous audit commissioned by First Choice themselves a few months ago. The audit told them to address this immediately.
During their visit Lisa said: "Because some time has gone by since the audit, I would really have expected those things to have been dealt with before our visit."
While they were there, Lisa's team also found that food wasn't always being kept at the right temperature. They found that one of the holding cabinets, where food is placed between leaving the kitchen and being served to customers, held food at 52.7 degrees Celsius. The FTO guidelines state that if food is held in cabinets like these, the temperature should be above 63 degrees Celsius.
Over their two days in the resort Lisa's team found plenty which is positive about the way in which the hotel is run. However, they also found other hygiene failures during their time there.
Two dishwashers in the resort, which blast dirty plates in just four minutes with hot water in four minutes to clean them, were not using water at a hot enough temperature to kill bacteria. Lisa also observed a member of staff attempting to test the temperature of a burger without disinfecting his thermometer first. This could increase the risk of bacterial spread.
None of what Lisa found is the cause of the illnesses. But she does consider them fundamentals of food hygiene.
Lisa's team also swabbed and took water samples at the resort. The results came back mostly negative. Though they did find faecal matter on ice from one of the bars in the hotel, none of what Lisa found explains why so many people became seriously ill at the resort.
While at the resort Lisa was impressed by the determination First Choice showed to put things right, but she noted this hadn't stopped people getting ill. In the studio Lisa also mentioned she didn't feel the resort was doing enough to collect information about what people ate, where they ate it, and where they swam before becoming ill. Though there are sickness forms the hotel uses to record information from ill guests, she said these weren't enough to allow the resort to establish patterns and see where the illnesses might originate. Also speaking in the studio, Christian Cull from First Choice said he agreed that it was necessary to introduce these procedures.
First Choice Statement:
"At First Choice, the health and well-being of our customers is our primary focus. We were therefore very pleased that Dr Ackerley, who undertook the audit for Watchdog, was particularly complimentary about the high hygiene and operating standards at this hotel.
The Holiday Village Turkey is one of the biggest and most popular resorts in our programme, with nearly 48,000 customers visiting each year. Whilst we recognise that any level of sickness is unacceptable, the numbers of holidaymakers falling sick remains very low when the large population is taken into consideration.
We closely monitor all the hotels in which we operate with a view to ensuring that the strictest health and hygiene standards are maintained. In her report, Dr Ackerley stated that the hotel was clean and well run and that she was unable to find the sources of any illnesses.
She did raise some minor issues, of which we were already aware and which are not the source of any infections. The hotel management had already introduced stringent interim measures on these issues to ensure hygiene standards remain high and more than fill all legal criteria. We have taken advice from the travel industry's leading independent hygiene expert and consulted with other top independent hygiene professionals and without exception, they all disagree with the weighting and significance that Dr Ackerley is placing on some of the issues raised.
Having said that, we are always very pleased to find ways to continually increase hygiene standards and are taking further action to address the points raised over the winter months, while the hotel is closed.
The Holiday Village in Turkey is and continues to be very popular, with the substantial majority of customers rating the property highly in customer satisfaction surveys. In fact over 80% of our guests would recommend the resort to a friend. However, we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that all of our customers have a safe and enjoyable holiday."
First Choice Update - Dr Lisa Ackerley's report
The hotel is all-inclusive and most guests never leave during their stay, which is why so many of them believe something in the resort made them ill.
Families have complained about getting ill at the resort every summer since it opened in 2005. There are now 1600 people who are suing or are planning to sue First Choice because illness ruined their holiday, and hundreds more may join them.
The majority of people who have stayed at the resort over the last five summers have not become sick. However, hundreds have. There are three illnesses which have been identified so far: salmonella, often caused by food not being cooked or stored at the right temperature; campylobacter, often caused by cross contamination of food; and crpytospiridium, often caused by faeces in water.
Following our last report First Choice agreed to allow hygiene expert Dr Lisa Ackerley and our cameras access to any part of the resort. So, she went to the Holiday Village for two days with three colleagues to see it for herself.
On the surface the hotel was spotless, and all the right hygiene processes in the kitchens appeared to be in place.
However, she and her team found that there were was no hot water in some of the wash hand basins in kitchens and snack bars for food handlers to wash their hands. The hotel does have hand sanitising procedures in place, but Lisa says that's not enough.
There are guidelines laid down by the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) which hotels abroad attempt to meet when they are part of a holiday package offered by big companies like First Choice. On hot water these guidelines state: 'Hand wash basins must be provided and supplied with hot and cold water, soap, and disposable paper towels or hot air hand-drying facilities at all times.' They also say: 'The temperature of hot water must exceed 50 degrees Celsius at all taps and faucets.'
The resort had been already warned about this issue in a previous audit commissioned by First Choice themselves a few months ago. The audit told them to address this immediately.
During their visit Lisa said: "Because some time has gone by since the audit, I would really have expected those things to have been dealt with before our visit."
While they were there, Lisa's team also found that food wasn't always being kept at the right temperature. They found that one of the holding cabinets, where food is placed between leaving the kitchen and being served to customers, held food at 52.7 degrees Celsius. The FTO guidelines state that if food is held in cabinets like these, the temperature should be above 63 degrees Celsius.
Over their two days in the resort Lisa's team found plenty which is positive about the way in which the hotel is run. However, they also found other hygiene failures during their time there.
Two dishwashers in the resort, which blast dirty plates in just four minutes with hot water in four minutes to clean them, were not using water at a hot enough temperature to kill bacteria. Lisa also observed a member of staff attempting to test the temperature of a burger without disinfecting his thermometer first. This could increase the risk of bacterial spread.
None of what Lisa found is the cause of the illnesses. But she does consider them fundamentals of food hygiene.
Lisa's team also swabbed and took water samples at the resort. The results came back mostly negative. Though they did find faecal matter on ice from one of the bars in the hotel, none of what Lisa found explains why so many people became seriously ill at the resort.
While at the resort Lisa was impressed by the determination First Choice showed to put things right, but she noted this hadn't stopped people getting ill. In the studio Lisa also mentioned she didn't feel the resort was doing enough to collect information about what people ate, where they ate it, and where they swam before becoming ill. Though there are sickness forms the hotel uses to record information from ill guests, she said these weren't enough to allow the resort to establish patterns and see where the illnesses might originate. Also speaking in the studio, Christian Cull from First Choice said he agreed that it was necessary to introduce these procedures.
First Choice Statement:
"At First Choice, the health and well-being of our customers is our primary focus. We were therefore very pleased that Dr Ackerley, who undertook the audit for Watchdog, was particularly complimentary about the high hygiene and operating standards at this hotel.
The Holiday Village Turkey is one of the biggest and most popular resorts in our programme, with nearly 48,000 customers visiting each year. Whilst we recognise that any level of sickness is unacceptable, the numbers of holidaymakers falling sick remains very low when the large population is taken into consideration.
We closely monitor all the hotels in which we operate with a view to ensuring that the strictest health and hygiene standards are maintained. In her report, Dr Ackerley stated that the hotel was clean and well run and that she was unable to find the sources of any illnesses.
She did raise some minor issues, of which we were already aware and which are not the source of any infections. The hotel management had already introduced stringent interim measures on these issues to ensure hygiene standards remain high and more than fill all legal criteria. We have taken advice from the travel industry's leading independent hygiene expert and consulted with other top independent hygiene professionals and without exception, they all disagree with the weighting and significance that Dr Ackerley is placing on some of the issues raised.
Having said that, we are always very pleased to find ways to continually increase hygiene standards and are taking further action to address the points raised over the winter months, while the hotel is closed.
The Holiday Village in Turkey is and continues to be very popular, with the substantial majority of customers rating the property highly in customer satisfaction surveys. In fact over 80% of our guests would recommend the resort to a friend. However, we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that all of our customers have a safe and enjoyable holiday."
First Choice Update - Dr Lisa Ackerley's report