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Fitness & Health

06th Mar 2020

Presence of insects, metal and plastic among reasons for over 50 food alerts issued in 2019

Conor Heneghan

food alerts

Arsenic above safe levels was also detected in drinking water and listeria monocytogenes in poultry, dairy and fruit.

The presence of metal pieces in prepared dishes, of plastic in meat products and of insects in other foods were among the reasons for the issuing of 55 food alerts in 2019, according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

The FSAI this week published the breakdown of the 55 food alerts and 52 food allergen alerts issued in Ireland in 2019, which can be viewed in full here and here.

Food alerts are issued in relation to an identified hazard, i.e. a biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food/food contact materials with the potential to cause an adverse health effect.

The 55 food alerts issued in 2019 were due to either product recalls or withdrawals from the Irish market for various reasons including: microbiological, chemical or foreign body contamination or mislabelling.

food alerts

As well as the reasons outlined above, alerts were also issued for the presence of undeclared alcohol in a non-alcoholic beverage and the mislabelling of dietetic foods and food supplements.

Food allergen alerts, meanwhile, are issued by the FSAI regarding the possible risk to consumers who have food allergies or intolerance to a particular food or food ingredient.

In Ireland, milk, cereals, eggs and nuts were amongst the most common allergens incorrectly labelled/declared in 2019. Three in every 100 people in Ireland have a food allergy and the seriousness of these occurrences can result in the loss of life to an individual in its most extreme form.

It can also result in consumers requiring urgent medical treatment due to severe allergic reactions if they eat food containing the allergen. In 2019, the main reasons for the food allergen alerts were:

  • The allergen being unknowingly incorporated in the product and, therefore, not listed in the ingredients
  • The ingredients list/label not in English
  • Packing of a product in the wrong pack
  • Failure to highlight an allergen properly in the ingredients list

The FSAI dealt with 679 food incidents in total in 2019, including the combined 107 food alerts and food allergen alerts, which can lead to either a withdrawal of a certain product from food businesses or a recall from consumers.

Food incidents can arise for a number of reasons such as:

  • An inspection by a food inspector who identifies a food safety issue
  • A complaint from a consumer
  • The food business informing the FSAI that they have a problem with a certain food
  • A laboratory test result indicating the food is contaminated with a bug
  • Notifications on food safety issues from other Member States through the European Commission’s Rapid Alert Systems for Food and Feed (RASFF) network

Commenting on the food and food allergen alerts issued last year, Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive of the FSAI, said that consumers should be able to trust that the food they are eating is labelled correctly and free from foreign objects and undeclared ingredients.

Byrne added that it is important to have confidence that food businesses will take appropriate speedy action to advise the authorities and consumers when things go wrong and ensure that unsafe product is removed from sale.

The FSAI Advice Line, which operates from 10am to 4pm weekdays, 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. The FSAI Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are also resources with up-to-the-minute information in relation food safety.

Topics:

Food,Health