Food contaminated with dead maggots and glass reported in 2014, FSAI says

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has received 14,348 food related queries and complaints in 2014, marking an 8% increase compared with the previous year.

According to FSAI, volume of complaints regarding contamination of food with foreign objects have gone up in 2014.

The watchdog handled complains that reported the presence of razor blade in minced meat, cigarette in a fruit brack, fly in a jar of marmalade, and insect in an apple tart, among others.

FSAI information manager Edel Smyth said: "Consumers have become more vigilant in recent years and are now much more likely to report poor hygiene or food safety standards that they encounter.

"This is a welcome development and we continue to encourage anyone who has had a bad experience to report the matter to us so that the issue can be investigated directly."

Almost 2,738 complaints among those were by consumers about food and food premises, while remaining included requests for advice from food businesses across a range of food related areas.

Within consumer complaints, 1,199 complaints were on unfit food, 529 complaints on suspect food poisoning, 566 complaints on hygiene standards, 175 complaints on incorrect information on food labelling and 269 on other areas.

Smyth added: "Poor standards are often the result of inadequate staff training and a failure to follow best practices to safeguard customers’ health.

"This is inexcusable given the substantial information and resources available to assist food businesses."