“Significant non-compliance” with food law at an Irish cheese processing plant has resulted in the disposal of 42t of product which was deemed unfit for human consumption.
This is according to the findings of the Audit of Official Controls in the Dairy Production Chain undertaken and recently published by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
The audit of controls performed by the Dairy Controls and Certification Division (DCCD) of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) was undertaken in 2022.
FSAI audit
The FSAI audit team assessed compliance with relevant food law in 11 food business operations within the dairy production chain between August and November 2022.
The five DCCD regional areas audited by the FSAI were: North, south-east, south, mid-west, and the south-west region.
The audit resulted in enforcement action being taken by the DCCD on four businesses and the continuation of pre-existing enforcement actions on a further business.
The scope of the audit focused on food products and food business establishments under the remit and supervision of the DCCD with a particular emphasis on cheese products.
Key reasons why these five compliance notices were issued in total to four cheese processing plants and one temperature controlled store, included:
- Inadequate traceability;
- Inadequate control of flying insects;
- Absence of shelf-life validation;
- Inadequate labelling;
- Absence of food business operation food safety testing;
- Inadequate controls regarding downgraded blocks of cheese intended for human consumption.
The audit identified inadequate supplier and product intake controls, and inadequate controls regarding the management of products unfit for human consumption at a cheese processing plant.
This resulted in the continuation of pre-existing compliance actions identified by the DCCD and the disposal of 4.46t of cheese as “intermediate risk material”.
Controls of food law
The affected business was requested to review all stock on hand within the establishment. This resulted in approximately 42t of product being disposed of under the supervision of the DCCD.
Subsequent audits conducted in another region by the FSAI identified an additional quantity of product being stored and or consolidated for this same operation.
These products were also deemed unfit for human consumption and were disposed of. The DCCD controls in this case identified non-compliance, but did not prevent further occurrences, the FSAI said.