Food body gives Chinese restaurant the all-clear

WITHIN three days of being served with a closure order, a Chinese restaurant in Skibbereen satisfied the requirements of a Food Safety Authority inspector and re-opened on December 10th.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) served the closure order – which was served under the EU Official Control of Foodstuffs Regulations 2010 – on the Dynasty Restaurant at 31 Bridge Street, Skibbereen on December 9th.  A closure order is served in situations where it is deemed that there is, or there is likely to be, a grave and immediate danger to public health, or where the restaurant owners have not complied with an improvement order.

A spokesperson for the FSAI said that in such situations restaurant owners are entitled to ask one of their inspectors to return to the premises to carrying out a follow-up inspection, which, in this case was done, resulting in the lifting of the closure order.

Commenting on the work the FSAI does nationally, a spokesperson said that 106 Enforcement Orders were served on food businesses for breaches in food safety legislation in 2015, compared with 113 in 2014 – a figure that indicates a 6% decrease.

During the year, the FSAI’s enforcement officers served a total of 90 closure orders and 16 prohibition orders on food businesses throughout the country. 

The types of recurring food safety issues that lead to closure orders include: poor cleaning and sanitation of the premises; poor personal hygiene; lack of running water; inadequate hand washing facilities; incorrect food storage; lack of ineffective pest control programme; structural problems arising from lack of ongoing maintenance and lack of a food safety management system.

During the month of December, seven closure orders were served on business: two in Dublin, two in Limerick; one in Louth, one in Donegal, and one in Skibbereen; as well as one prohibition order on a company in Tallaght.