Thursday, February 27, 2014
Scumthing funny?
Sinéad Hamill’s debut novel
»p21
Grisly tooth about what’s in our food
Picture: ePA
by joanne ahern
No bear essentials here – get your fix with double the cub These cuddly-looking twins – a male and female – who were born at the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, Germany, last December, will be the focus of a lot of attention as they celebrate their first International Polar Bear day today
Keep Dublin tidy – Please recycle this Metro Herald when you are finished with it
A HUMAN tooth in a Chinese takeaway, a chicken head in chicken wings and a dirty fingernail in baby food were just some of the extra bites brought to the attention of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) last year. There was a 12.5 per cent increase in complaints from consumers about food and food premises over the 2012 figure. The majority of those, 1,190, referred to unfit food. Meanwhile, 566 were complaints about suspected food poisoning and 587 were about hygiene. There were 192 complaints about incorrect information on food labelling. Only 33 calls received in 2013 related to the horsemeat incident, with 267 queries relating to the Hepatitis A outbreak associated with imported frozen berries. In total, the FSAI advice line dealt with 13,269 queries in 2013, including a 20 per cent increase in information requests on food labelling. Some 60 per cent of the queries were received by phone and 30 per cent by email. The remainder were via Facebook, Twitter, walk-ins, exhibitions and staff requests. FSAI information manager Edel Smyth said consumers are entitled to the highest safety and hygiene standards and it was the responsibility of businesses to provide this. She sees the increase in contact with the public as ‘a positive development’. She said: ‘On one hand, more food businesses are contacting us seeking to raise their food safety standards while, on the other, consumers are increasingly vigilant and aware of the need to report bad practice or experiences they’ve had where food safety has been compromised.’