Food related contraventions

A hawker at the Zurrieq Open Market was last month fined €2,000 by the Magistrates' Court for exposing food to risk of contamination and high temperatures and having improperly labelled products in June and December, 2005.

This was one of 62 health sittings decided by the courts last month, the Health Inspectorate Services of the Environmental Health Directorate within the Public Health Regulation Department said in its monthly update.

The inspectorate said that fines given by the court last month amounted to €5,170.

A number of conditional discharges were also given.

Although no food businesses were closed down in June, five operations were served with emergency control orders.

Three premises, in Luqa, San Gwann and Naxxar, were served with the order for using an unregistered borehole, one for the illegal processing and packing of green mung beans in St Paul's Bay and a kitchen in St Julian's or unhygienic conditions.

During this month, more than 53 kilogrammes of food were destroyed. These were bean sprouts/mung beans (30 kilogrammes), wheat flour (9.5 kilogrammes) and salads (13.75 kilogrammes).