Thursday October 18 2007, Irish Independent
GLASS in pesto sauce, salmonella in pre-packaged salads and live moths in breakfast cereal were just some of the horrors lurking in products that were pulled from supermarket shelves this year.
And with 79 other incidents of food contamination in 2007 alone, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland yesterday warned that food manufacturers must continue to be vigilant and swiftly recall any product not deemed fit for human consumption.
"Businesses not only face hefty fines but they will lose their customers because people don't trust them anymore," Jeffrey Moon, the FSAI's Chief Specialist of Environmental Health, said yesterday.
Speaking at a seminar, Mr Moon warned food retailers and wholesalers that there is no excuse for them not to act swiftly to recall any food that may pose a risk to general public health.
Failure to do so could mean stiff penalites as well as expensive lawsuits from consumers.
The FSAI has investigated 80 cases of suspected food contamination since January and found potentially harmful contamination in 57 cases, including chemical hazards in 35pc of cases, microbiological contamination in 26pc of cases, dangerous or misleading labelling in 11pc of cases and foreign objects in 4pc of cases.
The Irish food industry itself initiated 22 product recalls over the past year which were included in the 687 food alerts issued by EU member states to the European Commission since January.
Complaints
Many of the recalls are the result of complaints by consumers or through quality control checks.
But in some cases, food producers may know of a hazard but fail to act, as was the case with Cadbury which was forced to recall a million chocolate bars here and in the UK and withdraw its sponsorship of Coronation Street last year after it emerged that the company knew years earlier of suspected salmonella traces in its products.
"Last year an international confectionery brand failed to inform the relevant authorities in a timely manner of a potential salmonella problem they had with their products -- they paid the price for this irresponsible action in court," Mr Moon said.
