More than 6,245 kilogrammes of food and drinks were destroyed by the Health Inspectorate in June, most of it because of labelling irregularities, the possibility of a presence of foreign objects, meat prepared without a licence, or court orders, th Environmental Health Directorate said.
It said in a statement that, in July, 495 improvement notices in terms of article 33 of the Food Safety Act have been issued to food business operators.
This notice is sent to all food business operators following an unannounced inspection by environmental health officers within their establishment.
The intention of this notice is to inform food operators about deficiencies noted in their establishments and the operator is given a specific date in order to remedy these deficiencies.
Whilst the scale of deficiencies might vary, legal action is initiated when major deficiencies are noted.
A total 25 undertakings were entered into with operators. The main reasons were structural deficiencies in food premises, for not implementing a food safety management system such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, improperly labelled food, and failure to adopt food hygiene training.
Undertakings are legal agreements between the food business operators and the health authority specifying deadlines by which deficiencies in their premises should be remedied or to re-label products in compliance with standing legislation.
Failure to abide with the agreed deadlines results in court proceedings being initiated.
The directorate said that 11 contraventions were issued to food business operators; three for selling dairy products without proper temperature control, four for exposing food to risk of contamination, two for authenticity on honey, one for having potable water from a source which is not approved by the Superintendent of Public Health, and one for structural deficiencies.
Two contraventions were issued against individuals for keeping defective drains.
The directorate also issued four emergency control orders - three against owners/operators of boreholes supplying water intended for human consumption and one against an illegal food business operator.
A prohibition order under the Public Health Act was also issued and as a consequence a tattooist operating without a licence at Inseparable Tattoos & Artistic Creations, 18, Pjazza Vittorja, Naxxar was closed down by the health authority.
The inspectorate received 757 complaints – 85 related to food and 672 were environmental health related.
https://ehealth.gov.mt/HealthPortal/public_health/environmental-health/department_for_env_health.aspx