The Oldcastle Chinese fine dining restaurant was one of five establishments nationwide ordered to close by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) last month.
The Oldcastle Chinese fine dining restaurant was one of five establishments nationwide to be ordered to close by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) last month.
In a post on its Facebook page, the restaurant wrote a message to its “dear customers.”
“Health authorities who inspected our business on June 27 found that our employees were improperly handling food in the wrong location,” the message read.
“We quickly took care of the contaminated chicken and stopped using the woodshed that day. We also developed a timely repair plan. Health officials only requested that the shed be closed on a timer and allowed us to operate normally.”
“I will also retrain cooks employed in the field of food safety and hygiene.”
The message then states: “I would like to express my sincere apologies to the customers affected by this incident.”
A man who answered the phone at the restaurant Friday night, claiming to be the manager/chef, said they had made a mistake and assured customers they had taken action.
“We made a mistake and we are sorry,” the man said.
“We’ve been here for over ten years and we’ve never had a problem (before).”
The order follows an inspection carried out at its premises in the County Meath town on June 27.
In a report prepared following the review, FSAI officials ordered the immediate closure of an outdoor woodshed in the restaurant’s backyard where a number of uncovered cardboard boxes containing cooked chicken had been discovered.
“The shed door was open (and) flies were observed walking on the cooked chicken,” the report said.
Inspectors also found mould on the walls and ceilings of the hangar, raising concerns about a potential risk to public health.
“Food was not protected against contamination that would render it unfit for human consumption,” the report added.
The reservations are among a series of reasons why seven enforcement orders were issued nationwide by food safety authority officials last month.
Other closure orders included incidents involving two mouse carcasses found under a sink and under a toilet, a significant amount of rodent droppings under a sink and evidence of rat infestation.
Dr Pamela Byrne, FSAI chief executive, said food businesses have a legal duty to comply with food safety legislation in the interests of public health.
“Consumers have a right to healthy food,” she said.
“Under food law, it is the responsibility of food businesses to ensure that the food they sell to consumers is safe to eat.
“If anyone is faced with unsafe food, poor hygiene standards or sees a breach of food law in a food business, we encourage them to contact us via our online complaints form at www.fsai.ie/makeitbetter.
“Reporting inappropriate and unsafe eating practices provides us with information that we can act on.”
Three closure orders were served under the FSAI Act 1998 on:
Council (Closed area: upper floor of building) (commercial sector), 29 Clanbrassil Street Upper, Dublin 8
Mercury Eastern European Food (retailer), Unit 25, Midleton Business Enterprise Park, Dwyer Road, Midleton, Cork
Giraffe Childcare Limited, Elm Park, Merrion Road, Dublin 4
-Two closure orders have been served under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Law) Regulations 2020 on:
Fine Chinese Restaurant (Closed Area: Use of the external wooden shed in the rear courtyard of the restaurant for storage/handling of any open food or food contact materials), The Square, Oldcastle, Meath
Chrysanthemum (restaurant/cafe), Unit 1 Old Orchard Inn, Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14
Two prohibition orders have been issued under the European Union (Official Controls in Relation to Food Law) Regulations 2020:
Johnson Best Food African Takeaway, 86 Summerhill, Dublin 1
The Roadhouse (public house), Clongowney, Mullingar, Westmeath.
Additionally, during May and June, two prosecutions were initiated by the HSE relating to:
Mean Greens Vegan Food Stall, Ballysax Hills, The Curragh, Kildare
Crime Stall 2, Ballysax Hills, The Curragh, Kildare
