Closure Order on one pub in December
The drop in the number of Orders issued is not necessarily due to improved food safety practices but largely reflects the impact of Covid-19 where large numbers of food service businesses were temporarily closed for long periods throughout the year.
The reasons for issuing the Closure Order on the pub included: no running hot or cold water at the staff toilet or the sinks in the food room for the cleaning of food, crockery and cutlery. In addition, it did not have the necessary facilities in the food room to ensure that the food produced was protected against contamination.
In all, 42 Enforcement Orders were served on food businesses for breaches in food safety legislation in 2020, a decrease of 67% in comparison to the 125 Enforcement Orders served in 2019.
But this drop in numbers is not necessarily due to improved food safety practices, pointed out the FSAI, but largely reflects the impact of Covid-19, where large numbers of food service businesses were temporarily closed for long periods throughout the year.
Between the 1st of January and the 31st of December 2020, 31 Closure Orders, two Improvement Orders and nine Prohibition Orders were issued on food businesses throughout the country by Environmental Health Officers from the Health Service Executive, veterinary inspectors in the local authorities and officers of the FSAI.
Details of the food businesses served with Enforcement Orders are published on the FSAI’s website. Closure Orders and Improvement Orders will remain listed on the website for a period of three months from the date of when a premises is adjudged to have corrected its food safety issue, with Prohibition Orders being listed for a period of one mont
