FSAI Release Updated Website

Congratulations to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) are in order for two reasons:

First: the organisation is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The authority has been in existence since 1999 serving and developing the food sector in Ireland after its establishing in the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act 1998. It was one of the first state authorities to focus on food safety alone and has since served as an example for the establishing of similar authorities in numerous other countries.

Second: the Authority has just launched its overhauled website. It can be found at www.fsai.ie.
The new website has a fresh, clean look to it and is clearly structured and easy to navigate.

It features all the latest updates in food safety legislation development as well as a brand new 'food businesses' section, featuring information on HACCP, Training, Topics of Interest and a list of establishments that are approved under Regulation 853/2004 to handle and process products of animal origin.

The Resources and Publication section continues to feature all relevant SAI publications for free download (PDF format). A handy source thet provides a wealth of free of information for every food business!

The Science and Health section features interesting information on scientific health and food topics such as salt intake levels, health claims, food supplements and others.

Also of interest to the public is the section on Monitoring & Enforcement. Here the (sad) list of food safety offnders is published on an ongoing basis - food businesses that either were served with an improvement order (district court), a prohibition order (Authorised Health Officer) or closure order (Authorised Health Officer) are listed on this page until three months after the order has been lifted.

We wish the FSAI continued success in the future and hope that the newly refurbished website will be put to good use as a reliable source of information by food businesses across the country.

Give Your Staff Access To Food Safety Training - Courses April 2009 Now Booking!

Make sure your business does not get involved in a food safety scare and organise food safety training for your food handlers before the summer! MKRMS Food Safety training courses cover all the content that is needed for safe handling of foods in retail and catering businesses.

Upcoming courses in April:

7th April 2009 - Treacy's Hotel, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford: Basic Food Hygiene
22nd April 2009 - Ashdown Park Hotel, Gorey, Co. Wexford (Venue to be confirmed): Basic Food Hygiene
Courses cover all relevant food safety topics from bacteria and other food pathogens, foodborne illness and food poisoning, personal hygiene and cleaning, waste and pest control to taking in deliveries, handling and storage of foods, cross-contamination control and an introduction to employee's duties in relation to record-keeping and HACCP.

Course duration: 1 day
Cost € 120.00 per person (includes lunch, course materials)

Food Safety Essentials Courses (1/2 - day introductory courses for non-food handlers or employees with only occasional food contact) available on request or from our website: www.mkrms.com.

Irish Times News: Order your chicken well done to avoid a serving of gastroenteritis

Source: Irish Times, Tuesday, 3rd March 2009
DR MUIRIS HOUSTON, Medical Correspondent

CONSUMING CHICKEN, lettuce and eating takeaways are among the risk factors for contracting the commonest form of gastroenteritis caused by a bacterium, a new All-Ireland study has found. Campylobacter, the most common form of bacterial gastrointestinal disease in both the Republic and Northern Ireland, accounts for about two-thirds of all cases of acute gastroenteritis.

Researchers from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in Dublin and the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in Belfast, as well as public health colleagues from the Republic and Northern Ireland examined almost 200 cases of campylobacter gastroenteritis in the first comprehensive study of the disease here.

Apart from eating chicken and lettuce, they identified a number of other risk factors for campylobacter infection. Being in contact with sheep, having a peptic ulcer, suffering with a hiatus hernia (a condition where stomach acid travels back up the gullet) and having lower bowel problems were all associated with the bacterial infection.

Undercooked chicken was a particular culprit, which the authors said was an important finding given that more than 70 per cent of Irish people eat chicken.

The study, published in Eurosurveillance, the journal of the European Centre for Disease Control, focused on isolated cases of campylobacter rather than large outbreaks of infection. Unlike salmonella and other bugs that cause gastroenteritis, campylobacter tends not to spread out into the community.

In an explanation for the link with hiatus hernia and peptic ulcer, the authors noted: “many of the patients who suffer from these gastrointestinal diseases may be receiving long-term treatment with acid suppressants . . . therefore making the stomach a much less hostile environment for bacteria”.

According to Dr Paul McKeown, specialist in public health medicine at the HPSC and one of the study authors, the link to sheep may be a proxy for those who spend time outdoors and who come into contact with animal faeces.

“Much campylobacter is the result of environmental contamination. People need to be careful about cleaning their hands after they have been in the garden, handling pets or putting out the rubbish as well as before and after food preparation,” he told The Irish Times.

The study also identified a number of factors that protected people from getting campylobacter. Drinking water from a mains supply was protective as was eating beef and salad vegetables other than lettuce.

In terms of symptoms experienced by the 197 people studied, 99 per cent developed diarrhoea. Some nine in 10 victims had abdominal pain, while two- thirds had a fever. Almost one in five victims required hospital admission.

“The findings of the study highlight the need for an improved and more efficient approach to basic food hygiene measures to prevent campylobacteriosis and other infectious gastrointestinal illness in the community,” the authors concluded.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times