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Fitness & Health

06th Feb 2017

Food Safety Authority of Ireland outline some of the most disgusting complaints made in 2016

Conor Heneghan

deliveroo college

Fag butts, rats, live insects, human nails, a plastic rope and much, much more.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) have revealed details of some of the 3,202 complaints made to the FSAI advice line in 2016 and some of them are bad enough to put you off your lunch for a week.

The FSAI revealed on Monday that the advice line had received an increase of 17% in complaints in 2016 compared to the year previous; worryingly, reports of food poisoning alone increased by a staggering 45%.

The nature of the 3,202 complaints made to the FSAI advice line were broken down as follows:

  • 1,126 complaints on unfit food
  • 864 complaints on hygiene standards
  • 741 complaints on suspect food poisoning
  • 221 complaints on incorrect information on food labelling
  • 60 complaints on non-display of allergen information
  • 190 other

The FSAI report also included disgusting details with regard to complaints made under the ‘contamination of food with foreign objects’ category.

In 2016, for example, brace yourself, these reports included allegations of food contaminated with insects and glass, as well as other foreign objects, examples of which included:

  • A live insect found in a packaged dessert
  • A long black hair in garlic sauce
  • A human nail in a takeaway meal
  • Glass in a dessert
  • Plastic rope in a takeaway meal
  • A cigarette butt in a bag of chips

Other complaints regarding poor hygiene standards referred to dirty customer toilets, rats seen on the premises, dirty tables and floors and one case of a staff member at a deli sneezing into their hands and then preparing sandwiches without washing their hands.

All complaints received by the FSAI were followed up and investigated by enforcement officers throughout the country.

The FSAI’s Advice Line, which also offers advice and information to consumers, people working in the food service sector, manufacturers, retailers, researchers and consultants, is manned by trained advisors and food scientists and can be reached at [email protected] or through the ‘make a complaint’ section of the FSAI website.

For more information, check out the FSAI on Facebook and Twitter.

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Health