THE FOOD SAFETY Authority of Ireland ordered the closure of five food businesses over the course of October.
The list includes three Dublin sushi restaurants operating from the same bedroom of a house, which were ordered to close over a number of breaches:
FSAI inspectors found “no evidence” that Sushi using raw fish and rice was “being prepared in a safe manner”.
The inspector stated that there was no evidence that staff had been trained or supervised in food safety.
Dr Pamela Byrne, FSAI chief executive, expressed concern that the closure orders related to individuals running online unregistered and unsupervised restaurants.
“Running a food business that has not been registered and is therefore not supervised is totally unacceptable and poses a very serious risk to consumers’ health,” she said.
“In these instances, the unregistered businesses were producing sushi without any hygiene or temperature controls. Sushi is a very high-risk product because it contains raw fish which must be kept chilled to reduce the growth of dangerous bacteria.
“It can also contain cooked rice, which is a ready-to-eat product that must be kept chilled. In these instances, the absence of a food safety management system, no monitoring of the cold chain and no evidence of traceability of raw ingredients posed a grave and immediate danger to consumer health.”
The orders remain in place.
The full orders can be read here, here and here.
TFS Wholesale, operated by a company called The Funky Skunk Cork Ltd, was ordered to close after a live rat was observed running across the rear wall of the ground floor by an officer from An Garda Siochána.
Upon inspection, “extensive rat droppings were found under the sink unit in the kitchenette. Rodent droppings were found in a cardboard box used to store lollipops”, according to the FSAI inspector’s report.
“Some lollipops were found to have ‘gnaw marks’ on the product & the packaging was shredded (consistent with rodent attack). Chewed plastic wrapping material was also observed in this box.”
The order remains in place.
The full order can be read here.
The closure order stated that fresh rodent droppings were present on the floor of an area where dry goods and raw meat are prepared.
The evidence of fresh rodent activity posed a risk to public health, according to the order.
The business was ordered to close on 6 October but the notice was lifted the following day.
The full order can be read here.
Additional reporting by Gráinne Ní Aodha
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