The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has published its Audit of Multiple Retailers, which focused on the effective management of food incidents by multiple retailers at national and local levels.
The aims of the audit were to assess how the multiple retailers manage food incidents, including recalls and withdrawals, in accordance with food law; to verify that the multiple retailers effectively communicate with, and disseminate information to, their stores and distribution centres, and where necessary, to other food businesses, consumers and competent authorities; and to examine what checks the multiple retailers request from the suppliers of their own-brand products to verify compliance with food law; for example, microbiological, chemical, authenticity.
In summary, at store level, six of the 14 (43%) stores from three FBOs visited had 20 findings between them that required corrective action to address issues identified during the audit. Eight stores (57%) had no findings and were found to be compliant with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002. Significantly, four of these six stores with findings had no procedures in place to effectively deal with the withdrawal or recall of a “locally” supplied food. Two of these six stores had no procedures in place to inform the competent authorities of a recall of a locally supplied product, and one store was not aware of its legal requirement regarding informing consumers of the recall of product.