An Irish agency responsible for seafood safety has published its annual report, revealing the number of food safety incidents investigated in 2023.
The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) was involved in 25 reports of suspected illnesses resulting from the consumption of fishery products or live bivalve molluscs.
Sea-Fisheries Protection Officers (SFPOs) carried out 2,297 official food safety checks at 2,325 locations. Of these checks, 535 were inspections of approved establishments, and 1,553 consisted of official controls, such as checks prior to the certification of a consignment of food exported to a non-EU country, and temperature and labeling checks.
Food safety controls
The SFPA responded to 61 incidents raising concerns about the safety or quality of food that required investigation in the interest of public health. Fifteen of these were involved in the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). Ireland was the notifying country in four RASFF warnings.
Sixteen incidents resulted from unsatisfactory results regarding microbiological or chemical food safety criteria, and thirteen cases resulted in product recalls or withdrawals.
A total of 1,343 samples were taken. Three-quarters of these consisted of samples of fish, fishery products or live bivalve molluscs for microbiological or chemical analysis. Other types of samples included water, ice or seawater, and environmental swabs.
Six complaints have been received. They ranged from labeling issues to concerns about food safety information on a company’s website.
Seafood safety enforcement has ranged from informal advisory measures to issuing compliance notices and pursuing criminal charges for serious noncompliance. Four prosecutions for offenses under food safety law were initiated in the courts in 2023, two of which resulted in convictions and fines imposed on the company for breaches of food hygiene, traceability and food premises requirements under EU food safety law .
About ten compliance orders, four improvement orders, one prohibition order and nine fixed payment orders were issued.
A total of 2,222 inspections of fishing vessels were carried out, an increase from 1,903 in the previous year. 85 files were opened, including 63 law enforcement cases in the field of marine fisheries and 22 law enforcement cases in the field of food safety.
Trade and wider role
A confidential service encouraging people to report concerns to the SFPA received 81 contacts. Several issues were raised, including illegal and overfishing in Irish waters, unlicensed fishing, the sale of undersized lobsters and concerns about inshore fishing
By providing export health certification, SFPA enabled the export of 3,802 consignments of seafood totaling 49,782 tonnes and 23 species from 44 companies to 41 countries outside the EU.
At EU level, the SFPA presented possible revisions of key pieces of legislation relevant to the placing on the market of live bivalve molluscs. Another EU expert group discussed topics such as tuna fraud, intermediaries in the seafood supply chain, super-chilling of fishery products and changes to EU Regulation 853/2004 on the hygiene of food of animal origin.
Paschal Hayes, Executive Chairman of the SFPA, said: “In a challenging environment for Ireland’s sea fishing and seafood sector in 2023, the SFPA continued to provide regulatory oversight of our sea fishing fleet and our seafood processing sector, supporting the sustainability and safety of our internationally renowned seafood offering. Throughout the year, the SFPA has demonstrated its capacity as an effective, fair monitor and promoter of compliance with marine fishing and seafood safety legislation.”
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