Marler Clark LLP, PS (LexBlog Ireland)

An audit of the meat sector in Ireland has found a number of serious issues including forgery, use of meat with an expired date, and one company unable to identify its suppliers. Some non-compliances undermined the safety of food or resulted in misleading information for consumers, said the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The...

An increase in problems at food outlets and a rise in new registrations are hampering local authority efforts to get back to pre-pandemic performance on food checks. A report at the Food Standards Agency’s business committee meeting this past week gave an update on how councils are managing as part of a plan agreed in...

Many people in Ireland do not know how to make a complaint to authorities about unfit food or poor hygiene practices, according to a survey. Research commissioned by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) found almost two-thirds of adults are unsure about what to do in such a situation. The poll was carried out...

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is asking for feedback on plans to seek stronger powers for the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU). The NFCU tackles serious, organized, or complex cases of fraud within food supply chains, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The agency was leading or supporting 36 operations at the end of the...

Listeria monocytogenes has been detected in a number of frozen vegetables tested in Ireland. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said findings show a potential risk of illness for consumers who have non-ready-to-eat (RTE) frozen vegetables, fruits or herbs without cooking. After a 2015 to 2018 listeriosis outbreak in Europe traced to uncooked non-RTE...

According to public health officials, the number of people who became ill due to a salmonella outbreak linked to Kinder chocolate products has increased to 369 across Europe and North America, including 16 in Ireland. One additional Irish case involving a second strain has been identified in addition to the initial 15, according to the...

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has welcomed the verdicts of two court cases involving counterfeit alcohol and a firm that continued to trade despite being told to close. The first judgement in Tuam District Court involved the sentencing of three defendants in cases led by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and supported by...

The outbreak is characterized by an unusually high proportion of children being hospitalised, some with severe clinical symptoms such as bloody diarrhea. The majority of the cases are children under 5 years of age. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Salmonella Typhimurium matching the human outbreak strain had been identified at Ferrero plant...

An agency in Ireland has warned about the increased risk of Cryptosporidium because of the start of petting zoo season. The Health Service Executive’s Department of Public Health Mid-West is advising people to improve handwashing in and around farm settings, and to test and treat well water, to reduce the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium. The...

There’s a food recall by Ferrero of some Kinder Surprise chocolate products. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland says the products are being pulled due to a link with a food poisoning outbreak of Salmonella. To date, there have been ten cases in Ireland with the same strain of Salmonella responsible for the UK outbreak....

There’s a food recall by Ferrero of some Kinder Surprise chocolate products. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland says the products are being pulled due to a link with a food poisoning outbreak of Salmonella. To date, there have been ten cases in Ireland with the same strain of Salmonella responsible for the UK outbreak....

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has warned about the illegal sale online of rice-based infant and follow-on formula. Such formulas are not permitted to be sold in Europe, as they do not meet nutritional requirements for infants. They may be allowed if classed as foods for special medical purposes for those with a...

There was a rise in the number of consumer complaints to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s (FSAI) advice line in 2021. A total of 3,414 complaints were made, with 36 percent relating to unfit food and 24 percent to poor hygiene standards. All complaints received by the FSAI were followed up and investigated by...

There was a rise in the number of consumer complaints to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s (FSAI) advice line in 2021. A total of 3,414 complaints were made, with 36 percent relating to unfit food and 24 percent to poor hygiene standards. All complaints received by the FSAI were followed up and investigated by...

The European Commission has condemned the state of checks on goods coming into the EU via Northern Ireland. The EU Commission looked at the official controls on animals and goods entering Northern Ireland and verified compliance of border control posts (BCPs) in the country with European Union requirements. The Northern Ireland protocol, agreed as part...

There was a decline in most causes of foodborne illness, plus 25 outbreaks were reported in 2019, according to data released by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). The zoonoses report is published by the FSAI, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Health Service Executive (HSE), Local Authority Veterinary Service (LAVS), Sea-Fisheries...

Cannabidiol (CBD) oil has been recalled in Ireland after being made in an unregistered establishment. Hugold CBD Oils were recalled after they were processed at a site were operations had not been reported to authorities. Also, the products contain concentrated CBD which is an unauthorized novel food. A novel food is a food or ingredient...

More than three-quarters of Irish people don’t know the correct temperature to cook their turkey, according to a survey. Among respondents in the Republic of Ireland, 27 percent were concerned about undercooking the turkey and being sure it was safe to eat while 7 percent were worried about overcooking and serving it dry. The survey...

Four lessons have been identified involving regulation during COVID-19 by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI). They include the role of early warning and emerging risk systems to help authorities respond quickly to new threats and how by accepting an impact on official controls, agencies can maintain high priority activities during crises and still...

There was a decline in reports of four foodborne pathogens and the number of incidents and recalls in the past year, according to the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) annual report. It covers activities in 2020-2021 across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK leaving the European Union, as well...

A company in the Republic of Ireland has been punished for breaches of food law including forging and altering documents. Arrabawn Co-Operative Society Limited was convicted in a recent district court ruling and fined €40,000 ($46,400). Arrabawn employs 400 people and collects milk from more than 1,000 shareholder farmers. It also has food ingredient and...

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has issued a warning about jelly sweets containing cannabis ahead of Halloween. The agency urged people to be vigilant due to the dangers of consumption, particularly by children, of products such as jelly sweets containing the psychoactive cannabis component known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Products are packaged to resemble popular brands...

The coronavirus pandemic, Brexit and resource issues severely challenged the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in 2020, according to the agency’s annual report. Food inspections, sampling and enforcement orders all declined but food and allergen alerts rose compared to 2019. Inspectors served businesses with 31 closure orders, two improvement orders and nine prohibition orders,...

An audit by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) of halal claims on meat has found most companies are compliant with the rules. Animals such as cows, veal, lamb, sheep, goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, game birds, bison and venison are considered halal, but must be prepared according to Islamic laws for their meat to...

More than 50 people are ill in Ireland after a failure at a treatment plant led to contaminated water being released to the public. The Health and Service Executive (HSE) is investigating an outbreak in the town of Gorey in North Wexford. There have been 52 confirmed illnesses linked to the incident, including cases of Shiga toxin-producing...

Irish public health officials have reported four recent outbreaks of Salmonella. The four different salmonellosis clusters affected 15 people, according to a report published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in Ireland. Patients ranged in age from infants to people more than 80 years old with 11 females and four males sick. Four of...

Researchers have studied the socio-economic drivers of E. coli and Cryptosporidium infection in Ireland. While incidence cannot be predicted solely based upon metrics such as education and employment, both infections are partly driven by such factors, said scientists. STEC in rural areas has been associated with direct farm animal contact and contaminated drinking water, while...

Health officials in Ireland are investigating an E. coli O26 outbreak at a childcare facility. Officials with the Department of Public Health Mid-West of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said the agency is managing the outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and highlighted the importance of effective hand hygiene and well water treatment. The agency...

More than half of Northern Ireland’s home cooks are unclear about how to barbeque meat to the correct safe temperatures, according to recently released survey results. Results revealed that 55 percent of participants didn’t know what temperature meat should be cooked to. Responses ranged from 30 degrees C to 260 degrees C (86 degrees F...

An outbreak of cryptosporidium that affected 40 people in Ireland this past year has been linked to salad from one farm. A cluster of cryptosporidiosis cases was reported from a South Dublin laboratory in July 2020. All sick people were interviewed, and environmental health officers did 110 inspections to collect food and water samples at businesses...