The Environmental Health Directorate last month destroyed over 5.3 tonnes of food including five tonnes of breaded fish and 152kg of various foodstuffs due to labelling irregularities, 100kg frozen poultry meat which was being defrosted and sold as fresh, and 40kg of peanuts which were unfit for human consumption.

The directorate said that the number of its inspections last month rose by 177 inspections over the previous month. 594 improvement notices in terms of the Food Safety Act were issued, calling on establishments to rectify deficiencies found during inspections.

Contraventions

Two contravention notices were issued to food business operators for selling food containing a foreign object and for structural deficiencies inside food premises.

Another two contraventions were issued at Mater Dei Hospital for smoking in public areas and another contravention against a private residence for having irregular drains.

Recalls

During May, three food items were recalled, as already reported in the press.

In the same month, 514 complaints were lodged with the Health Inspectorate. Sixty six of these complaints were food related. The most common type of food complaints were regarding fitness of food (10 complaints), unhygienic premises (10 complaints), improper labelling of food (8 complaints), and personal malpractices (5 complaints).

Another 448 complaints were environmental health related. The most common type concerned presence of pests (141 complaints), infiltrations (87 complaints), accumulations of refuse (46 complaints), keeping of animals in unhygienic conditions (30 complaints), defective drains (26 complaints), foul smells (22 complaints), and 21 complaints regarding sewage overflows.

The directorate can be contacted on 21337333 or by email complaints.ph@gov.mt .