There have been seven Food Allergen incidents identified by the FSAI in the past two months. All related to undeclared allergenic content on the product label as follows:
To familiarize yourself with all Allergen legislation and to understand how to develop an Allergen Management Programme see our Food Allergen Control course brochure.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) are seeing a big increase in the number of requests for information from people interested in starting a new food business, probably reflecting the downturn in the economy. In the National Technology Park here in Limerick, a new business, yum yums, has recently started delivering good quality lunches, door to door to offices and businesses in the Park. The refrigerated van arrives daily before lunch, selling sandwiches, wraps, soups etc.
Sean and Sinead set up their new food enterprise in 2009. Sean was a self-employed builder and Sinead a Sales Manager in GE Money. We all know the difficulties in the building sector and then Sinead became redundant from her sales job. They decided to establish this food business. Last year they had one van delivering door to door. Since January they now have two.
To support such enterprises, the FSAI has just published a new ‘Guide to Food Law for Artisan/Small Food Producers Starting a New Business’. The guide covers areas such as:
- Food Law
- Registration and Approval
- Food Safety Management System
- Training
- Traceability and Recall
- Legislation Summary
- Voluntary Irish Standards
Training is one area where we can help Artisan/Small Food Producer. We have twelve Food Safety training courses covering HACCP, Food Allergen Control, Food Safety Auditing, Food Legislation, Food Hygiene, Risk Management and the ISO 31000 standard.
This guide is available on the FSAI website.
Sean and Sinead hope to employ 10 people by end 2010. We wish them the very best of luck with their venture.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) do trojan work in the whole area of food safety.
Last week it announced details of communications received on their advice line in 2009. In total 9,444 communications were received, of which 1,981 (21%) were complaints from consumers.
The 1,981 complaints were broken down into:
858 (43%) complaints on unfit food
363 (18%) complaints on suspect food poisoning
408 (21%) complaints on hygiene standards
112 (6%) complaints on incorrect information on food labelling
20 (1%) complaints on incorrect advertising of food products
220 (11%) other
Consumer awareness of food hygiene and safety issues is evident in my opinion from the fact that 38 people on average contacted the FSAI each week with complaints. However we must remember that this only reflects the number of consumers who actually took the time to make contact with the FSAI – most likely only a fraction of the number of consumers who encountered problems.
Foreign objects that contaminated food included insects, hair, pieces of skin, glass and rodent droppings. Complaints about poor hygiene standards related to food handling staff not washing their hands, touching their face and then handling food and handling raw and cooked food with the same kitchen utensils.
44% of communications received by the advice line were from the food industry. The main requests were for publications, advice on food labelling, food safety training information and information on how to set up a new food business.
We here at SQT also do a lot of training in the area of food safety. In total we have twelve courses in this area including:
Food Safety Auditing
HACCP Development, Implementation & Verification
Food Allergen Control
Global Standard for Food Safety BRC Issue 5
Instructor Skills for the Food Industry
Introduction to Food Legislation
Food Hygiene
A number of these courses are FETAC accredited.
Full information on the courses listed is available by clicking on the above links or here for our full range of food safety courses.
Full details of FSAI announcement is here.
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