A dead rodent in a bag of bananas, live and dead insects, a tooth, a false nail, pieces of metal and a plaster were among the foreign objects found in food by consumers last year, the Food Safety Authority has reported.
Some 11,166 queries and complaints were handled by the authority’s advice line in 2011 – an increase of over 13 per cent on the previous year’s queries about food and food establishments.
Some 2,415 of the calls were complaints, ranging from reports of unfit food, low hygiene standards, inaccurate labelling and suspected food poisoning. The number of complaints was up from 2,126 in 2010.
In total, there were 966 complaints about unfit food, 497 complaints about suspected food poisoning, 446 about hygiene standards, 137 about incorrect information on food labels, 37 about incorrect advertising and 332 other complaints.
The authority said contamination with foreign objects was “frequently” reported by consumers last year.
“In 2011, these reports included food contaminated with live and dead insects; a tooth; a false nail; pieces of metal; plastic rubber tubing; and a plaster,” the authority said.
Specific incidents included a report of a small dead rodent in a bag of bananas, and a bolt “complete with nut and washer” in meatballs.
Consumers also reported concerns about food being sold past its ‘best-before’ date, where no information was displayed at the point of sale.
“Food legislation does not prevent a packaged food to be offered for sale past its ‘best-before’ date, but it is strongly recommended to indicate to the consumer that the food is past its ‘best-before’ date, so that they can make an informed choice before purchasing the product,” the authority said.
Other complaints ranged from suspected food poisoning, to poor hygiene standards, to food workers handling money and not washing their hands before handling food.
The authority said all complaints received were individually followed up and investigated by environmental health officers throughout the country.
Information manager Edel Conway said the increase in complaints was “a positive indication of people’s heightened awareness of their right to expect high standards of hygiene and food safety in relation to food”.
"Consumers are more vigilant than ever; they expect and are entitled to adequate standard of food hygiene in every food establishment and across every food product they purchase," Ms Conway said.
"The potential health risks posed when poor food safety and hygiene standards are not met by food businesses can be serious, but are easily avoidable.
"Poor standards can be the result of a shoddy approach or ignorance where a food business has not made a priority to ensure they are following best practices to safeguard their customers’ health. There is no excuse for a food business to have poor standards across any area of its production processes."
Last year the authority launched its first digital communications campaign entitled See Something, Say Something! which aimed to raise awareness amongst consumers of its advice line service.
"We encourage anyone who witnesses poor hygiene or food safety standards to report the matter to the FSAI, so that it can be investigated by the environmental health officers," Ms Conway said.