Irish businesses in receipt of closure, prohibition or improvement orders from the courts will now be listed on the Food Safety Authority of Ireland's website, www.fsai.ie, it has been announced.
The FSAI is the first food safety agency in Europe to take this action - in accordance with the provisions of the FSAI Act 1998. The Act requires the authority to bring the contents of such court orders to the attention of the public.
"There are over 36,000 food premises in Ireland," Dr Patrick Wall, the FSAI's chief executive, said. "Since January of this year 40 closure orders have been served. It is unfair to those businesses with excellent food safety and hygiene practices that a small number of premises flagrantly disregard the law and put the public's health at risk."
The inspection and enforcement of food businesses is carried out by officers working under contract to the FSAI. These include environmental health officers (EHOs), veterinary inspectors and sea fisheries officers. They have authority to issue directions to food business proprietors, as they consider appropriate, following inspection of a premises.
A closure order is served where it is thought there may be a grave and immediate danger to public health. The order can refer to the immediate closure of all or part of the premises - or all or some of its activities.
An improvement order may be issued by the District Court if an "improvement notice" is not complied with within a defined period. It is served where it is deemed that any activity involving the handling or preparation of food or the condition of a premises may pose a risk to public health.
A prohibition order is issued if the activities (handling, processing, disposal, manufacturing, storage, distribution or selling) may involve a serious risk to public health from a particular product, class batch or item of food.
"We recognise that EHOs, vets and other food safety professionals can't be everywhere at once and we will never be able to police food safety into Ireland," Dr Wall said. "If it takes a `name and shame' approach to bring such operators into line or out of business, so be it."
The chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Mr Henry O'Neill, welcomed the FSAI initiative. The association was "totally behind" the FSAI in seeking to rid the food industry of its "maverick" element.
Food lawyer Mr Raymond O'Rourke also supported the initiative: "The FSAI's initiative today treats all food businesses violating food safety laws equally, which is long overdue." He hoped the authority might provide a national database of food premises, similar to one employed by New York City's Health Department.