The food industry was warned yesterday by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) that there could be no excuses for "sloppy practices or unsafe methods" in food handling.
The warning came from the FSAI's chief executive, Dr John O'Brien, when commenting on the closure and prohibition orders for February.
A closure order and a prohibition order were served on Midland Fine Foods Ltd, Offaly, for breaches of food safety legislation under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act, 1998.
In the premises involved, the prohibition order applied to a variety of meats at the wholesale meat business. The orders were served on Ciarán Campbell.
Closure orders are served when it is deemed, there is, or is likely to be, a grave and immediate danger to public health.
Prohibition orders are issued if the handling, processing, disposal, manufacturing, storage, distribution or selling of food involve or are likely to involve a serious risk to public health from a particular product, class, batch or item of food.
Dr O'Brien said there could be no excuses for sloppy practices and unsafe methods and the law would be brought to bear on those deliberately cutting corners and ignoring food safety legislation.