The Environmental Health Directorate said today that in January, around 1,806kg of foodstuffs were destroyed. They included 1117.44kg of 'bakersware' due to lack of health warning on labels due to presence of certain colours ;214.5kg of kitchenware due to lack of documented compliance with EC Regulation 284/2011163.8kg of pine nuts due to metallic aftertaste;150kg of seafood due to unauthorised import in the European Union and 160kg of miscellaneous items due to several reasons.

In the past month, four contraventions were issued/processed by the Health Inspectorate, three of which were related to food safety issues.

A butcher was served with a contravention notice for exposing food to risk of contamination and selling foodstuffs without proper labelling; a confectionery for selling foodstuffs which contained foreign objects; a catering establishment for failing to abide with an undertaking given to the directorate and another notice due to the failure of a resident to remove blockage in drains.

Emergency Control Orders

During January a store was ordered to improve hygiene and organisation and a self-service shop was ordered to stop from processing, manufacturing and packing meat and poultry products without the necessary licence.

In January 48 complaints were related to food. The most common type of food complaints concerned improper labelling (8 complaints), unfit food (5 complaints), unhygienic premises (5 complaints), premises not operating in accordance with licence conditions (5 complaints) and risk of contamination (5 complaints)

Another 306 complaints were environmental health related. The most common type concerned presence of pests (83 complaints), infiltrations (61 complaints) and accumulations of refuse (25 complaints).