Offaly business closed for breaches of food safety legislation

An Offaly business has been served with a closure order for breaches of food safety legislation.

Environmental Health officers in the HSE served the closure order on The Village Shop & Takeaway, Mountbolus, on July 23, ordering that all of the business close.

Under the FSAI Act, 1998, a Closure Order is served where it is deemed that there is or there is likely to be a grave and immediate danger to public health at or in the premises.

Details of the closure were published by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

The HSE report found that human waste was overflowing from a manhole in the staff toilet into a room storing food contact equipment, adjacent to the food preparation area.

It said the conditions provided “a direct opportunity for pathogenic bacteria likely to be present in human waste to contaminate food or food preparation areas, rendering it unsafe.”

The report by the Environmental Health Service of the HSE found: “This poses a grave and immediate risk to public health.”

According to the FSAI website, at the time of going to press, the closure order was still in place.

It was one of eleven Closure Orders and two Prohibition Orders on food businesses during the month of July for breaches of food safety legislation, pursuant to the FSAI Act, 1998 and the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Legislation) Regulations, 2020.