TWO FOOD BUSINESSES were ordered to close this month by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

One business, operating through a website called ‘www.FatBurney.com’, was marketing and selling a dangerous chemical used for weight loss. 

2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) is not intended for human consumption and the FSAI said its use has “serious and unpredictable side effects, including death”.

The FSAI closure orders in January were given to: 

• www.FatBurney.com (retailer), 41 Ard Caoin, Clonmel, Tipperary
• The outbuilding occupied by Christian Krummel (Butcher: Mixed products), Number 11 Woodlands, Greystones, Wicklow

The website was ordered to cease its activities immediately due to a “failure to comply with food legislation” by marketing and selling DNP. 

Commenting on the closure, the chief executive of the FSAI Dr Pamela Byrne said there are “serious health risks” when taking slimming products bought online that aren’t linked to registered food businesses. 

“We are urging consumers to remain very cautious and to only buy from established food businesses,” Dr Byrne said. 

She said DNP is a “highly toxic industrial chemical which has been abused as a ‘fat burner’ to achieve rapid weight loss”. 

“It is illegal for DNP to be sold for use as a weight loss product and it is not allowed in food,” she said. 

“Its use has serious and unpredictable side effects, including death. There has been one recorded death in Ireland in 2015 and the UK National Poisons Information Service has recorded 32 deaths in the UK from 2007 to date.”

In terms of the butcher oubuilding in Wicklow, the entire premises was ordered to close. 

It said it was operating “without registration or approval”. It did not have the necessary approvals for the “handling of wild game and the production of meat preparations and meat products from wild game meat”. 

The FSAI letter stated that there were rodent droppings in the storage cupboards and a bowl in the processing area, showing “inadequate procedures in place” to control pests. 

The meat products had been produced from wild game meat where the carcasses “had not undergone veterinary post-mortem examination”, meaning the meat used wasn’t demonstrably fit for human consumption.