In its annual report, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) warned that food incidents are becoming more complex and often serious. FSAI marked its 25th anniversary in 2023. External challenges impacting food safety include the potential for supply disruption due to political unrest in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine, regulatory divergence after Brexit, and the focus on environmental sustainability and its unintended consequences for safe food.
The FSAI Advice Line received 4,395 complaints from consumers regarding hygiene standards in businesses, food unfit for human consumption, and people with suspected food poisoning, up from 2022. Investigations into protected disclosures made by food industry employees to the FSAI jumped from 16 in 2022 to 89 in 2023. These investigations led to several enforcement actions, including the removal of a significant quantity of food from the market that posed a danger to public health.
Incidents and fraud investigations In 2023, FSAI handled 773 food incidents, of which 425 were serious. While this was down from previous years, the agency said these incidents were becoming more complex, involving complicated distribution chains, multi-agency responses, and engagement with other countries. Authorized officers from FSAI and other state authorities conducted 57 food fraud investigations and 21 online searches.
Approaches ranged from the execution of a search warrant obtained from a district court to the monitoring of social media .