Nine food businesses closed over public health fears

A Chinese restaurant off Dublin’s Grafton Street was among nine businesses which the Food Safety Authority shut down last month over public health fears. Another seven premises were given prohibition orders for breaches of food safety legislation in July.

Professor Alan Reilly, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), warned that food businesses need to be vigilant in relation to food safety, ensure full compliance with food regulations and demand high standards from their suppliers.

“This is another high monthly total of enforcement orders, with seven prohibition orders served last month, which is a new and worrying record,” he said.

Five restaurants, a take-away, a distributor and the food areas of a pub and hotel were closed for one or more days during the month until health and safety standards were met.

They were the Blueberry Restaurant, Moyvalley, Co Kildare; The Larder (restaurant), Parliament Street, Dublin 2; Red Parrot (pub), Lower Dorset Street, Dublin 1; and the New Millennium Chinese Restaurant, South King Street, Dublin 2.

“These prohibition orders force food businesses to withdraw unsafe or illegal food from the market,” Prof Reilly said.

“We warn food businesses to ensure that the food they serve and sell is safe to eat, and obtained from reputable suppliers.

“It is vital that all batches of food are fully traceable and labelled correctly, and that food businesses know it has been produced and stored safely and hygienically.

“The integrity of the food supply chain relies on every food business playing its part,” he said.

A further five businesses shut down under European food regulations were: Creedon’s Hotel (main kitchen and rear-yard store room) in Macroom, Cork; Kebab Bites (take-away), Redmond Square, Wexford; Sur La Mer (restaurant), Rosslare Strand, Wexford; Great Stuff Caterers (storage shed and garage of distributors / under appeal), Cork Road, Midleton, Cork; Pizza Palace (restaurant), Temple House, Templeshannon, Enniscorthy, Wexford.

The FSAI said closure orders are 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.

Elsewhere the seven prohibition orders — issued if the handling, processing, disposal, manufacturing, storage, distribution or selling food involve or are likely to involve a serious risk to public health from a particular product, class, batch or item of food — were served by environmental health officers and sea-fisheries protection officers last month.

They included North West Shellfish Ltd (aquaculture production site), Upper Carrick, Carrigare, Letterkenny, Donegal; New Millennium Chinese Restaurant, South King Street, Dublin 2; Red Parrot (public house), Lower Dorset Street, Dublin 1; Pizza Max (take- away), Annamoe Terrace, Dublin 7; Meadow Grove Stores (cash and carry), Ringmahon Road, Blackrock, Cork; Bryan Allen, Food Stall operating at Semple Stadium, Thurles, Tipperary; and Tom McCall (cash & carry), Crosslow, Tullow, Carlow.

Elsewhere a successful prosecution was brought against John Johnson, Bimdoc Cash & Carry, Business Centre, Jamestown Business Park, Jamestown Road, Finglas, Dublin 11.