Evidence of rodents found at two Cork business issued with closure orders

Two food businesses in Cork were among nine to be issued with enforcement orders last month by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

The Applegreen service station Ticknok, Cobh, and the Istanbul Bite take away on Upper Cork, Hill, Youghal, were both served with closure orders under the FSAI Act (1998).

Under the Act a closure order is issued where it is deemed there is, or is likely to be, a ‘grave and immediate danger’ to public health at or in the premises in question, or where an improvement order is not complied with.

Closure Orders can refer to the immediate closure of all or part of the food premises, or all or some of its activities 

The order for the Applegreen premises, served on May 14 in the name of Petrogas Group Ltd by the HSE did not include the forecourt fuel pumps.

However, the inspectors report found that the food business at the premises was “not kept clean and maintained in good repair”.

The report went on to say this was evidenced by the fact that dead rodents and rodent droppings were discovered as various locations on the shop floor and around food storage areas.

The closure order was lifted on May 17.

The closure order for the Istanbul Bite, served on May 22 to the company secretary of Tasneem’s Kitchen Ltd, related specifically to the boiler and potato peeling rooms at the Youghal premises.

The HSE inspectors report said the construction of these “did not permit good food hygiene practices”.

Droppings

The report said there was a “large amount” of rodent droppings identified within the boiler room, which adjoins the potato peeling room where foods are processed.

The grill cover of the drain beneath the potato cutting machine was found to be damaged, providing what the report said was “a potential pest ingress point”.

The report said the evidence noted found there is or likely to be “a grave and immediate danger to public health”.

“The above conditions lead to a serious risk of food being contaminated with pathogenic bacteria likely to render the food unfit for human consumption, injurious to health or contaminated in such a way that it would be unreasonable to expect it to be consumed in that state.” 

FSAI chief executive Pamela Byrne said breaches of food safety legislation pose a real danger to consumer health.

“Food safety is not an optional luxury when operating a food business,” said Ms Byrne.

“By neglecting to uphold basic food safety and hygiene standards, a business not only jeopardises the health of its customers, but also risks damaging its own reputation as a trustworthy food business,” she added.

Details of the food businesses served with enforcement orders are published on the FSAI’s website https://www.fsai.ie.