Mallow restaurant issued with closure order
RESTAURANT CLOSED FOR FIVE-DAYS FOLLOWING HSE INSPECTION
IT has emerged that a restaurant in Mallow was issued with a closure order last month by environmental health officers with the HSE for breaches of food safety standards.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) revealed the order was served on Rube Restaurant Ltd, trading as Colours of India Restaurant with an address at Unit 2, Hibernian Way, Mallow, on November 15.
The order, which was served under the EC Official Control of Foodstuffs Regulations (2010) was subsequently lifted five days later on November 20.
A detailed report, available to view on the FSAI website, listed a number of reasons for the issuing of the closure order.
These included that a HACCP safety management system was not implemented or maintained and that “monitoring checks of foodstuffs at critical control pints were not being carried out”. The report read that this may lead to a risk to food safety “as any potential food hazards may not have been identified or adequately controlled.”
The report also noted there was an insufficient hot water supply to wash-up sinks and hand basins in the kitchens and there was no suitable system in place for manual wash-up of food contact equipment and utensils in the kitchens double deep sinks as there was no disinfection step.
It noted the drainage pipe from the wash-up sink was not properly connected to the drainage system with water flowing from the sink into a tin can and that cleaning was poor throughout the premises “with no cleaning programme in place”.
The report also found that the business operator had failed to segregate raw and cooked foods during storage, posing the risk of cross contamination, and posing “an unacceptable risk to public health”.
Finally, while the report stated that training on food safety and hygiene issues had been carried out in 2012 “the practises observed during the inspection demonstrated a lack of sufficient food safety knowledge and understanding” and as a result there was “no confidence in the food business operator’s ability to manage food safely”.
The Mallow premises was among 14 enforcement orders served on food business across Ireland during November, a number that FASI chief executive Dr Pamela Byrne described as “unacceptable”.
“The reasons for the enforcement orders having to be served are all easily preventable in the first place and food businesses should not allow their standards to slip,” said Dr Byrne.
She said that with the busy Christmas period upon us, food businesses must be especially vigilant to ensure compliance with the law.
“Special attention should be given to food safety training for both full and part-time staff to cope with any extra demand,” said Dr Byrne.
“The FSAI provides advice if food businesses are unsure what their legal obligations are at www.fsai.ie or the FSAI Advice Line, info@fsai.ie,” she concluded.