A rapid turnover of staff and increasing employment of non-English-speaking workers in the Republic pose considerable food safety risks that must be addressed immediately by improved training, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has warned.
Food industry employers had to realise there was a pressing communications problem, the FSAI chief executive, Dr Patrick Wall, said yesterday. "Staff could be a food business's greatest liability if their incorrect actions, as a result of poor knowledge of food safety practices, caused a food-poisoning outbreak."
Speaking at the annual conference of IBEC's food and drink federation, Dr Wall said large numbers of foreigners were being recruited to work in the food industry. One well-known meat processing company had brought in a team of Brazilian butchers to work in their plant, while a major percentage of hotel staff were from abroad.
Employers had to ensure "appropriate training" and they were responsible for the consequences should anything go wrong. That was why McDonald's fast-food restaurants had asked the authority about providing educational material in Spanish. "English-language literature may not be the appropriate way to train staff."
Stringent legislation required employers to ensure each of their staff was trained and fully understood food safety and hygiene techniques. Lack of knowledge of simple procedures could be extremely dangerous, Dr Wall said. "The fact that food is delivered in a refrigerated container to an establishment, then unloaded and left at the back door of a restaurant or supermarket for long periods where the product temperature rises to the danger zone is just inexcusable."
The new food safety climate meant farmers would have to deploy stricter hygiene provisions, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, told the conference. This would be an important element in his reform of EU food safety legislation.
The powers of the Commission's Food and Veterinary Office are to be strengthened to allow "control and inspection at all levels of the feed and food chain". A move to set up a European food safety agency was progressing rapidly with a target of beginning work by 2002 or sooner.
