More than 120 butcher shops in Ireland do not comply with food safety regulations, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said today.
The Authority was announcing details of an information campaign on food safety in butchers.
It said that only 27 per cent of the 961 "high-risk" butcher shops in the State were compliant. While an additional 60 per cent had started the process of becoming compliant, 13 per cent who had yet to show any compliance, the FSAI said.
There are approximately 1,100 butcher shops and 500 meat counters within supermarkets across Ireland.
The FSAI campaign is to focus on butchers deemed to be high-risk because they sell ready-to-eat meat products in addition to raw meat products. Survey results show there are 961 high-risk butchers in the State.