File photo Shutterstock / Viacheslav Nikolaenko Shutterstock / Viacheslav Nikolaenko / Viacheslav Nikolaenko

AN INDIAN TAKEAWAY in Co Donegal was last month served with a closure order by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) after a ‘pond of human excrement’ was discovered in the kitchen.

Three other businesses, in Tipperary and Cork, were also served with orders.

Saffron takeaway, in Creeslough in the northern county, was served with the order on the 19 October.

Among other reasons given for the closure, the restaurant was found to have human excrement overflowing and ponding from beneath a manhole beside the potato peeler in its kitchen.

“As staff had to stand outside while using this food equipment, they would be standing in the excrement, thereby carrying it into the food premises on their shoes,” the closure order reads.

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The order also describes dead flies being found “floating in oil used to baste pizza dough”.

The closure order on the premises was lifted eight days later on 27 October.

The New York Pizza in Ballina Co Tipperary was closed for four days from 27 October, meanwhile, for a succession of hygiene violations which “posed a risk of contamination to food prepared and stored on the premises”.

These included a toilet vent being clogged with dust, food debris and dirt being note on wooden boards in the kitchen, and many different areas being ‘black with dirt’.

Rodent droppings

The Beijing Taste Buffet in Cork city was shut for three days from 24 October due to “prolific evidence of rodent droppings noted throughout the kitchen”.

“All of the above lead to a grave and immediate danger to public health and the risk of contamination of food with pathogenic bacteria and foreign matter, such as rodent droppings,” the closure order reads.

Finally, Chick Chicken in Cobh, Co Cork, was closed, also for three days, from 18 October due to “the presence of a live mouse adjacent to food”, and further rodent activity being observed in the food store room.

All of the closures observed in October have since been lifted by the FSAI.

A further prosecution was also taken by the HSE (under whose aegis the FSAI operates) against the Dropping Well pub in Miltown, south Dublin, for an unknown offence dating from August of this year.

The judge in that case ruled that so long as the pub makes a charitable donation of €500 to Focus Ireland no conviction will be recorded, due to it having a history of no prior convictions.

Pamela Byrne, CEO of the FSAI, described the four closure orders as being “disappointing”.

“It is envisaged that our new systems and processes, that now enable us to provide additional information on the specific details of each enforcement order, will act as a deterrent to food businesses,” she said today.

However, unfortunately there continues to be a small number of food businesses not complying with their legal requirements.  Food businesses must recognise that they are legally bound to ensure that the food they serve is safe to eat.

You can read October’s closure orders in full here

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