‘A snail found in coleslaw’: Complaints to food watchdog climb 8%

The number of consumer complaints to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) went up by 8.3 per cent last year.

A total of 7,732 complaints and queries were handled by the FSAI advice line over the period. There were 4,395 complaints from consumers, with 31.9 per cent of them relating to poor hygiene standards, 27.2 per cent relating to unfit food and 26.7 per cent to suspected food poisoning.

Poor hygiene standards were the most frequently reported issues, which included complaints related to staff not having hair covered during food preparation, toilets being dirty and staff handling food and cash with the same gloves.

Consumers also lodged complaints about food being unprotected from contamination, bins overflowing and attracting animals, dirty fridges, food not being stored correctly, visibly dirty premises and rodents.

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The second most frequently reported category related to unfit food, which was described as “contamination with a foreign object”. Commonly reported foreign objects in food included plastic, hair, insects, glass, stones and wood.

Other examples included insects found in instant noodles, a snail found in coleslaw, a dead mouse in strawberries, a stone in black pudding, mould in a prepacked rice bag, a piece of bone in a chocolate bar and worms in frozen dumplings.

Other complaints featured a piece of plastic inside a pepper, part of a latex glove found in a bag of spinach, a shard of glass in a loaf of bread, a metal shaving in takeaway noodles and a metal pin in a prepacked salad.

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Further complaints regarding unfit food cited meats not cooked completely, food that smelled or tasted off, foods sold past their use-by dates and mould on food.

The third most frequently reported category related to reports of suspected food poisoning, with chicken, beef, fish and shellfish the most common foods mentioned.

FSAI chief executive Pamela Byrne said reports from the public “help to identify specific issues, ensuring swift identification of potential threats to public health”.

“The increase in complaints reflects a growing awareness among the public of their right to safe food and the importance of high standards of food safety and hygiene,” she added.

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