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ELEVEN FOOD BUSINESSES were issued with closure orders from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in June – the highest number in any month so far this year.
The orders were served for breaches of food safety legislation, namely the FSAI Act 1998 and European regulations.
The enforcement orders were issued by environmental health officers in the Health Service Executive.
Six closure orders were served under the FSAI Act 1998 on:
Four of the orders were issued to businesses in the Moore Street Mall in Dublin city centre.
Cockroaches were seen in the kitchen and under vegetable storage at His Food, a restaurant. Cockroaches, a dead mouse at the kitence entrance, and rodent droppings were observed at Steam Asian Street Food.
Evidence of a mouse infestation and a dead cockroach in a trap was found at Mroz supermarket. Cockroaches, flies near uncovered food, and mouse droppings were seen at Gorace Gary restaurant.
Numerous rat droppings were observed near the ice cream machine and surrounding area in Kenna’s Centra in Dublin 7. Black mould was found on a wall in Burger Bite in Limerick, as well as unhygienic customer toilets.
‘Grave and immediate danger to public health’
Under the FSAI Act 1998, a closure order is served where it is deemed that there is or there is likely to be a grave and immediate danger to public health at or in the premises; or where an improvement order is not complied with.
Closure orders can refer to the immediate closure of all or part of the food premises, or all or some of its activities.
Five closure orders were served in June under the EC (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations 2010 on:
Busy summer
Speaking about today’s report, Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive of the FSAI, said the high number of closure orders served on food businesses in June is “extremely disappointing”.
Summer is a busy time of year for food businesses and systems must be put in place to cope with the increase in customers and at a time when outside temperatures can be a lot higher. Bacteria in food can multiply quickly in warm weather and food businesses must ensure that food is stored at correct temperatures.
“In June we saw a number of failures in pest control procedures resulting in a number of Closure Orders.
“These businesses are putting their customers at unnecessary risk of becoming sick through these poor hygiene practices and it will not be tolerated,” Byrne said.
Full details of the closure orders and improvement orders issued by the FSAI in June can be read here.
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Great work from the food safety inspectors , well done.
The Moore Street mall seem like a right dump, not the 1st time I’ve seen it here either.
@Mick paisley: it is. I went down once to check out a buffet place in it and asked for my money back before I’d even filled my plate with the place was filthy
@Mick paisley: I believe you wipe your feet on the way out!
@barry keogh: bahahahaha, its some kip
The Moore Street mall seems like a delightful place…
@Rochelle: The Brazilian restaurant there is really good.
Delightful even.
I think I’ll avoid the whole area for a few months.
You would think that the businesses could get together and contain the infestation instead of letting it spread.
Grateful to the FSA.
Really need to stop bugging these restaurants.
@Seymour business: What? So someone is placing bugs in the restaurants so the health safety inspectors will find them?
@Earth Traveller: seriously !!!.
Can you not see the pun , it’s actually quite funny.
@Earth Traveller: whoosh!!!
@Earth Traveller: No.
@Earth Traveller: Bet your a barrel of laughs at a party?
From the business closures it is really good to know that these inspections were a surprise inspection, usually everyone knows when an inspector is coming and so can clean up.
@Charles McGuire: Everyone knows when an inspector is coming? Don’t be soft. They can and do walk into a premises whenever they want.
In this case, there must have been a complaint to visit and close so many places at once.
You’re eating in the wrong places if you think we all only clean up when we think an inspector is on the way, like a teenager doing the dishes before mammy gets home from work!
@Matt Mc G: ah the classic dash to clean the kitchen twenty minutes before arrival of the parents. I was an expert. Good times!
@Matt Mc G: There should be several more places closed. How often are FSA inspections being carried out?
@Mary Lyons:
id say it depends on how many there are. (fairly obvious really)
Dining at home seems to be the healthy option!
@Josh Hanners: Does your wife/husband wash their hands and wear gloves before preparing thr meals?
I always thought Ireland didn’t have cockroaches.
@Seriously stunned: It’s the foreigners Joe, they brought them in.
@Seriously stunned: Ireland has no endemic cockroach species. However, our penchant for importing foods from all around the world means inevitably cockroaches were going to make their way here. And make their way they did. It’s a simple reality of living in a globalised world where people don’t care where their food (or indeed anything else) comes from. All it takes is for a handful of cockroaches on 1 shipment out of 100s of shipments annually for them to make a foothold and start breeding. It’s now the new reality that cockroaches are here to stay.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: If only we’d stayed loyal to bacon cabbage and spuds we’d never have this cockroach issue.
@Hugh Jass: we import the majority of our spuds and cabbage these days. I’m not saying we should avoid foreign foods at all. But it is a reality that the more you rely on foreign foods the more you expose yourself to foreign bugs, bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. This exposure could be limited (though not abolished as we will still need foreign foods such as teas, exotic fruits and vegetables, etc) if we tried to grow more variety of foods here instead of turning all of our agricultural land into beef pastures for export.
@Seriously stunned: We do. They’re in the Dáil and sucking every euro they can out of their plummy jobs…
@Mick paisley: yeah, unless paddy Wong resides on Parnell Street and Jimmy uchuha resides on Moore str.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: black widows and scorpions too. Always check your shoes in the morning……
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: 1,000% with you Brian!
Surely not the Moore Street mall? I for one am very shocked at this…
A real shame to see Parnell str. And Moore str. Go to the dogs.
Ah please Journal.ie, did you have to publish that accompanying picture at the top of the article? I feel like throwing up just looking at it.
Crikey. I’ll be staying out of Moore street eateries so
I like the method of rating displayed in the front windows of restaurants in the US, the use either grades like A, B, and so on or numerical value like 100, or 95. You know it’s rating when you walk-in the front door.
@John Flood: It should be mandatory over here, crazy that it’s not.
@John Flood: How does that work for cockroach-infested places? Do they get a “C”?
Or is it so usual in the States that they just post a count of cockroaches caught that day?
Catch of the day: 95!
I live in the mountains in north central Vietnam.
If anyone knows how to stop a cockroach getting in.
Please start a company and become successful enough to expand your business to the middle of nowhere, in Asia.
Thanks in advance.
@Linus Robin: ya I know how to keep them out, send me 10grand (euros) and a pair of business class tickets destined to your closest international airport. I’ll come find you when I land!
@Linus Robin: Wonder where we imported the mice and rats from?
@Mary Lyons:
England? i dont know, do you have the answer?
@Mary Lyons: Leinster house if full of them and they are costing the taxpayers a fortune!
Why do I refuse to eat out, it is self explanatory! It should be compulsory for people in the food industry to wear gloves in all stages of production and preparation. Its repulsive to see people on t.v. mixing food with hands, there is bacteria everywhere. Note Food Authority.
@Mary Lyons: just because some get closed down doesn’t mean every restaurant and take away is filthy.
@Mary Lyons: you shouldnt be left out full stop.
Just wondered if FSA inspects storage of food and vegetables being sold on Moore Street.
I better not bring my hot date to the M.str eatery.
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