Good food safety standards are a consumer's right, not a privilege, according to Dr Martin Higgins, chief executive of the Food Safety Promotion Board.
"Ireland's millions of consumers wield huge power in terms of where they choose to spend their money. If people have any doubt about the safety of the food being served, the cleanliness of the premises or the staff, we would urge them to vote with their feet and take their custom elsewhere," he said.
In the past year, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has received more than 2,000 complaints from consumers encountering poor food hygiene. Many more complained directly to environmental health officers in the health boards.
A consumer leaflet, funded by the European Commission, and co-ordinated by the FSAI and FSPB, urges consumers to complain of poor hygiene practices to the server, the manager and the local environmental health officer or the FSAI. Speaking yesterday on European consumer rights day, FSAI chief executive Dr Patrick Wall said foot-and-mouth disease and BSE were making the headlines but less exotic germs were making thousands of Irish people ill each year.
The Vote With Your Feet leaflet, available from the Safefood Helpline (1 850 404 567) asks consumers to contact their GPs if they suspect they have food poisoning.
The policies of global pharmaceutical industries were yesterday described as "morally repugnant" at a celebration to mark the Third European Day of the Consumer. The European Consumers' Association director, Mr Jim Murray, denounced the 40 pharmaceutical companies taking legal action against South Africa to enforce patent rights. He accused them of denying access to medicines to poor people infected with AIDS in the Third World.