Pests and poor hygiene among reasons for nine food business closures in February

Ten enforcement orders have been issued to food businesses across Ireland for issues including inadequate pest control and poor hygiene practices. 

According to the latest report from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), Environmental Health Officers in the HSE served nine closure orders and one prohibition order to the businesses during February 2023 for breaches of food safety legislation. 

Some of the reasons for the Enforcement Orders include: a significant risk of cross contamination due to the condition of the staff toilet, with a water leak flowing into the food storage and preparation area and flooding a nearby carpet; E. coli detected in parsley mayonnaise, beetroot hummus, rocket pesto and chicken and chorizo bap, indicating that faecal pathogens may also be present or that poor hygiene practices occurred; and food debris and black mould found on surfaces, indicating inadequate cleaning procedures.

Other reasons include frozen meats being stored for an unknown duration with no traceability information could be found; no monitoring of food temperatures that are critical to food safety, with sausages and rice stored at potentially harmful temperatures; a dead rodent found near the kitchen, indicating inadequate pest control procedures; an extraction hood dripping grease down the canopy; and there were no handwashing facilities for staff. 

Five Closure Orders were served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on Super Asia Food (retailer), White Rabbit (restaurant/café), and Il Capo (takeaway), all in Dublin 1. 

Cork Oriental Supermarket Ltd restaurant and café (closed area: kitchen and kitchen storage area) in Cork, and Homesavers (closed activity: to cease the sale, packaging and/or processing of all food products on the premises) at Mile Height Retail Park in Tralee, Kerry were also served with closure  orders. 

Four Closuse Orders were served under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020 on East Oriental Take Out in Dublin 8, Top Oil Gala (closed area: the food service area/deli) in Dublin 11, Dook's Fine Foods (restaurant/takeaway) in Fethard, Tipperary, and Gianny's takeaway in Edenderry, Offaly. 

One Prohibition Order was served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on Fish Seafood Deli Ltd at Carbery, Enterprise Park in Cork. 

Commenting, Chief Executive of the FSAI, Dr Pamela Byrne, said maintaining a clean premises is essential and obligatory for every food business.

She said, "Consumers must be able to trust that the food they are being served is safe to eat and it is unacceptable that some food businesses fail to fulfil this duty. Storage and food preparation areas must be properly cleaned and maintained to avoid potential contamination of food. It is also important that businesses have proper pest control procedures in place and that they are regularly checking that there are no pests in their premises.

"Earlier this month we ran a free webinar on managing and monitoring pest control procedures in food businesses to address this reoccurring issue. This webinar can be accessed on the FSAI website." 

Also, during the month of February, one prosecution was taken by the FSAI in relation to Healing with Hemp, T/A Kama Hemp, Burdautien, Clones, Monaghan.  

Dr Pamela Byrne welcomed the ruling upheld by Judge Raymond Finnegan in Monaghan District Court on 22 February 2023 in relation to charges brought against Catherine Mullaney, Marcus John McCabe and Kamaceuticals Limited.

According to the FSAI, they were convicted on two counts of obstructing authorised officers of the HSE with total fines of €3,000. This ruling sends a strong message to food businesses that obstructing an authorised officer will not be tolerated under any circumstances and in this particular case, it resulted in prosecution.