Updated - adds reaction by Candynavia
The Health Inspectorate Service last month closed down four food businesses until remedial action was taken in line with Emergency Prohibition Orders. They have since been allowed to reopen.
The service said the shops were Ta’ Gerit in Qormi, Grano d’Oro, Zebbug, Candynavia at Park Tower Complex, St. Julian’s and M&S Discount Store, Cospicua.
Another three businesses were stopped from carrying out certain activities and served with an Emergency Control Order. They included a butcher who was ordered to stop the production of Maltese type sausages due to unhygienic conditions; a food supplement retailer who was ordered to stop advertising that food supplementscan prevent , treat or cure diseases and a business which was found to be packing cheeselets in inappropriate premises.
The service said that last month, 704 improvement notices iwere issued to food business operators following unannounced inspections.
Destruction of Food
In January, over 1,565kg of different foodstuffs were destroyed by the Health Inspectorate. They included:
592kg of oranges due to presence of mould; 321kg of grocery items due to fitness and labelling issues;
318kg of food supplements due to possible presence of unauthorised GMO; Over 199kg of confectionery goods due to production in unhygienic conditions; 61kg of capons without traceability; 60kg of meat and meat products due to labelling irregularity and 11kg fresh eggs since traceability code on egg did not tally with that of the packaging,
Food related complaints
Sixty nine complaints related to food were received The most common type of food complaints concerned improper labelling of food (22 complaints), risk of contamination (11 complaints), unhygienic premises (9 complaints), unfit food (5 complaints).
Other Environmental Health related complaints
Another 333 complaints were environmental health related. Once again, the most common type concerned infiltrations (73 complaints), the presence of pests (72 complaints), drainage overflows (25 complaints), leakage/defective drains (20 complaints), accumulations of refuse (17 complaints).
Candynavia reaction
In a reaction to the inspectorate services' statement, Candynavia said the reason why they were briefly shut down was simply because some of the products did not have English labels. No one suffered any problems as a result of the products.
The owners said that instead of shutting them down, the inspectors could have informed then about the issue and given them a couple of days to translate the labels.
products. Since no problems are created we suggest it's better to informal help out the business and explain the rules and laws. We do not have any objections that the products need English translation, just the way they handle the situation.
The translations was sorted a couple of days after the inspection.