asked the Minister for Health if he is satisfied with the present standard of hygiene operating in food preparing and serving; the number of inspections carried out by inspectors of his Department in this area; the number of prosecutions, if any, which resulted from these inspections; the proposals, if any, he has for improvements in food hygiene standards and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Food Hygiene.
191.
There has been an improvement in recent years in the standards of hygiene generally in the food industry but there remains, undoubtedly, much room for further improvement. Inspections of food premises are carried out by the environmental health officers of the local health boards. The numbers of inspections carried out on food premises in 1984 and the numbers of prosecutions taken in that year for breaches of the Food Hygiene Regulations were as follows: inspections 71,306; prosecutions 133.
Health boards generally take an educational approach in the first instance with the management and staff of food operations and for the most part they secure their ready co-operation. Prosecutions are taken where such co-operation is not forthcoming.
My Department keep in close contact with the health boards concerning activities and developments in the area of food hygiene. For example, in response to the growth in the numbers of mobile food stalls throughout the country my Department are preparing proposals for the up-dating of the provisions in the food hygiene regulations in regard to these stalls. I also hope to have issued in the near future a guide to hygiene for butchers' shops. In the final analysis I believe we will only achieve and sustain the required standard of food hygiene when the general public insist on it and are prepared to express disapproval whenever they encounter poor standards.