Ireland gets stricter on food safety

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) announced last week that all Irish food businesses who are served Closure Orders, Prohibition Orders, and Improvement Orders will now be listed on the FSAI's website. Businesses will remain listed on the site for three months from the date of when a premises is adjudged to have corrected its food safety issue and the Order is lifted. The FSAI is the first European food safety agency to take this action in accordance with the provisions of the FSAI Act, 1998. The Act states that the Authority shall bring the contents of an Order to the attention of the public. Speaking at the announcement Dr Patrick Wall, chief executive of FSAI, said that this action was being taken in the interest of public health. However, it should be put in perspective as the overwhelming majority of food businesses operate to high food safety and hygiene standards. "There are over 36,000 food premises in Ireland and since January of this year 40 Closure Orders have been served. It is unfair to those food businesses with excellent food safety and hygiene practices that a small number of premises flagrantly disregard the law and put the public's health at risk. The poor practices of a small number of businesses can affect the entire image of an industry and those who do that should be named,"​ says Dr Wall. In Ireland, the inspection and enforcement of food businesses is carried out by authorised officers working under service contract to the FSAI and these include environmental health officers (EHOs), veterinary inspectors and sea fisheries officers. Following inspections of premises these officers have the authority to issue a variety of directions, as they deem appropriate, to food business proprietors. These officers notify the FSAI of all incidents where they have served Orders on businesses. "Enforcement officers working for the health boards and local authorities throughout the country are agents of the FSAI. They have an important function in inspecting food premises and ensuring that businesses comply with food safety legislation, but they also provide a very important support function for these operations by helping them introduce processes and management systems to meet high food safety standards,"​ says Dr Wall. "We recognise that EHOs, vets and other food safety professionals cannot be everywhere at once and we will never be able to police food safety into Ireland. Most food businesses are taking food safety seriously and have controls in place to protect their customer's health. Those businesses that have serious breaches of the law and put their customer's health at risk will face closure and have their names highlighted. If it takes a name and shame approach to bring such operators into line or out of business so be it,"​ Dr Wall continued. The FSAI will also issue a press release listing those premises served Orders on a monthly basis.