St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly was “in constant breach” of health and food hygiene regulations and it was difficult to understand how it was given “a clean bill of health” in previous months, a report by the Institute for Tourism Studies has concluded.

The report, extracts of which were seen by Times of Malta, also points out that the home for the elderly – the country’s largest – did not have a system to identify and control food safety hazards.

“In view of the fact that no HACCP [Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points or Security System] is in place… one fails to understand how the… kitchen was for the last few months given a clean bill of health,” according to the report, completed on May 30.

On Tuesday Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Justyne Caruana announced that the kitchen would be closed down and rebuilt.

She took the decision after the environmental health directorate, in an inspection on May 9, found the kitchen to be in an “appalling state”, giving it a grade F. The kitchen had earned better grades in the past.

In its report ITS spoke about “decades of neglect” and added that it was “a matter of time before a health crisis could develop”.

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