Thirty food businesses have been closed so far this year by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) because they posed "a grave and immediate danger to public health".
More than half the closure orders were issued to premises in the service sector, such as restaurants and takeaways.
Most of the remaining orders were served on the meat processing and delivering sector.
Orders were lifted in five of this year's cases.
Three orders related to a specific part of a particular business. In one premises, for example, only cooked ham production was closed.
Since September, seven food businesses have been closed, five were given improvement orders, and two were issued with prohibition orders.
The authority has so far this year issued 74 enforcement orders, which are served on food businesses with "serious breaches of food safety legislation". There are about 37,000 food businesses in the State.
All enforcement orders, which are served to protect public health, are listed on the FSAI website: www.fsai.ie
Putting the enforcement orders on the website acts as a "good deterrent" Dr Patrick Wall, the authority's chief executive, told The Irish Times.
He said the industry generally was complying with food safety standards.
As well as closure orders, the 74 enforcement orders issued include improvement orders, which legally require a premises to comply with improved food safety guidelines.
Also included in the total are prohibition orders, which prohibit the sale or distribution of a particular food.
A consignment of contaminated chicken, for example, could be legally prohibited from being distributed.
Dr Wall stressed that part-time staff recruited to cope with extra demand at Christmas must be adequately trained.
He said untrained staff was one of seven easily preventable factors which contribute to outbreaks of food-borne disease.
The other six factors are poor hygiene at premises, inappropriate storage or inadequate refrigeration, inadequate cooking or re-heating, cross contamination from raw to cooked food, an infected food handler and contaminated raw ingredients.
Since September, closure orders were served on the following food businesses:
Mr Tim Hickey - premises address: Flesk Meats, Crosstown, Killarney, Co Kerry. Date served: December 7th (closure prohibiting the production of mince meat).
Mr Paul Cusack - premises address: c/o Rene Cusack, Dock Road, Limerick (fish processing); Date served: November 23rd.
Mr Dorcas Olavayose Johnson - premises address: 30 Crumlin Road (fish processing). Date served: October 9th.
Mr Pat Creamer - premises address: Main St, Cappamore, Co Limerick (abattoir). Date served: October 25th (order subsequently lifted).
Mr Alan Ngai - premises address: Castle View Chinese Restaurant, Castle Street, Macroom, Co Cork (restaurant). Date served: October 22nd (order subsequently lifted).
Mr Dao Ning Zhu- New Century Chinese Restaurant, Main St, Charleville, Co Cork (restaurant). Date served: October 19th (order subsequently lifted).
Messrs Antonietta and Mario D'Allessandro - European Grill, Main St, Mallow, Co Cork (restaurant and canteen). Date served: October 9th (Order subsequently lifted).